Flock cameras help Middle GA police solve crimes. They’re raising privacy concerns, too

When a Columbus man drove a stolen car into Monroe County in late January, there were no cop cars waiting for him. A few minutes later, though, police arrested him after a chase that ended in a crash.

Neremiah Johnson, who reportedly stole the car in Gray before driving toward Forsyth, was caught by a license-plate-reading camera, one of many installed over recent months in Monroe County.

The camera found the stolen vehicle’s plate number in a database and reported it to a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy, leading to the chase that ended with Johnson’s capture and the car’s recovery.

Johnson’s is one of five stolen vehicles recovered with the help of the camera system in the past three-to-four months, according to Monroe County Sheriff Brad Freeman. While the cameras help police track potential criminals, they also raise questions about privacy.

Flock Safety cameras

A company named Flock Safety owns the cameras and sells their services to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. There are more than 20 of these license-plate-reading cameras in Monroe County, Freeman said, all from Flock.

The cameras take photos of every car (and license plate) that passes by, but only report the license plate number to a deputy if it is connected to a crime, according to Flock spokesperson Holly Beilin.

The photos are stored on the camera for 30 days before being deleted. Flock and the Monroe sheriff’s office did not disclose the locations of the cameras, though the one that scanned Johnson’s plate was located on Juliette Road and GA Highway 87.

Flock has been operating safety cameras since 2017, selling their services to both private groups and law enforcement agencies. They first started contracting in Middle Georgia in 2019, according to Beilin.

“We operate on sort of a subscription model. For the license-plate-reading cameras, it’s $2,500 per camera per year,” she said. “The (Monroe County) sheriff’s office owns all of that data, (Flock) does not have access to it.”

Since only the sheriff’s office can access the stored photos, they are used for investigative purposes only, Beilin said.

“That way the pictures can be used after crimes for investigative purposes,” she said of the storage method. “Say if someone robs your house while you’re on vacation, you might not know about that for a while. Not all crime is known instantly, not all crime is reported.”

Freeman said the cameras also help updating their stolen vehicle system.

“We actually had two vehicles reported to us by Flock as stolen that had already been returned, so it helped us clean out our system and make sure it was up-to-date,” he said. “With crimes, it’s not going to solve a case for you, but it can give you a very good lead.”

Security and privacy

Both Beilin and Freeman acknowledged that the cameras led to privacy concerns among Middle Georgians.

“There is a little concern about tracking you, and we certainly understand that,” Freeman said. “It’s important to know that this camera isn’t a tracking system, it only tells us about tags that are already attached to a crime.”

Beilin noted that Flock cannot access the data and that the notifications sent to law enforcement are automated. She also emphasized that the photos are “hard-deleted” after 30 days of storage.

In Flock’s contract with the Monroe sheriff’s office, a stipulation says that Flock “may store deleted data” to meet certain legal standards. The deleted footage would only be accessible with a court order, the contract said.

The contract also states that Flock decided the locations of the cameras and had final say in their placement.

Flock cameras are growing more popular with law enforcement, with other cameras located in the Atlanta area, Columbus and Houston County. Bibb County Sheriff David Davis recently announced his intent to install Flock cameras in Macon.