As the home of Flock Safety, Atlanta has become one of the most surveilled metro areas in the nation. Thousands of license-plate-reader cameras line Georgia roadways, raising questions about the balance between public safety and privacy across the country.
Over the past few months, more than two dozen law enforcement officials, both sworn officers and civilian employees, in Georgia have been fired, charged or accused of using Flock systems to make personal searches. In some cases, officers used the searches to track former romantic partners, children and others to stalk and harass them.
There have been even more cases across the country. Flock Safety responded by instituting an internal audit system that flags suspicious searches and changing default data settings to hold information for seven days instead of the previous 30 days.
But many communities say that is not enough. Law enforcement agencies, homeowners associations and other community partners are canceling their Flock contracts and, in some cases, taking cameras down just weeks or months after installation.
Atlanta Moves to Strengthen Privacy Rules
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has announced an attempt to codify and strengthen the city’s existing privacy standards while the city continues to partner with Flock Safety.
In an announcement Tuesday, Dickens said he would introduce legislation at the Sept. 21 City Council meeting to “build on the existing safeguards established by the Atlanta Police Department (APD) and create a permanent, citywide framework for the responsible use of public safety cameras and other technologies.”
The mayor’s office hopes the City Council will move toward approving the steps within 60 days.
The legislation would address 10 areas, according to the mayor’s office: citywide standards, use policies, access controls, data governance, mandatory audits, independent oversight, vendor accountability, review of new technology, public transparency and temporary deployment safeguards.
It would also explicitly prohibit discriminatory or viewpoint-based use of covered technology, as well as the use of city systems or data for personal, commercial or other unauthorized purposes, according to the mayor’s office.
APD has already revised its license-plate-recognition policy in an effort to stop misuse before it occurs.
“Technology that gives government extraordinary capabilities must come with extraordinary accountability,” Dickens said in the announcement. “Public safety is not a blank check, and neither is privacy an excuse to deny law enforcement tools that can help save lives and solve crimes. Atlanta will have both: effective public safety technology governed by clear rules, meaningful oversight and consequences when those rules are violated.”
Atlanta Audits License-Plate-Reader Searches
In August, Atlanta police conducted an internal audit of 115,578 Flock license-plate-reader searches from 2026 amid rising cases of officer misuse across the state.
According to Dickens, APD flagged 79 of those searches for an additional audit, accounting for less than 1% of all searches made in Atlanta’s Flock system.
Unflocked, an anti-license-plate-reader organization, reports that more than 3,000 agencies have access to Flock’s camera network. Atlanta is seen as “ground zero” for the cameras because the company’s headquarters are there.
Residents can see whether their vehicle has been included in a Flock search using the online tool “Have I Been Flocked?”
Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA TODAY’s Deep South Connect team.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Atlanta mayor proposes new guardrails for license plate reader cameras
Reporting by Irene Wright, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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