ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Georgia residents are pushing back against license plate-reading cameras they say have gone too far, with some vandalizing the devices themselves, as the state’s two leading gubernatorial candidates face growing pressure to explain where they stand.

On the campaign trail this week, neither candidate offered a detailed plan. Jackson said the system “needs guardrails,” while Bottoms called for a “comprehensive review.”

Vandalism reported across the state

Anger over the cameras has led to vandalism in multiple Georgia communities.

Cobb County police charged 25-year-old Colby Williams after investigators said he fired projectiles at Flock cameras along Roswell Road on Monday night, setting three of them on fire.

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“Well, we have seen more of it,” said Sgt. Eric Smith with the Cobb County Police Department.

Smith said Williams faces multiple felony charges.

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“Arson in the third degree, interference with government property, as well as criminal damage to property,” Smith said.

Camera network raises privacy concerns

Flock operates more than 120,000 cameras nationwide, according to the ACLU. The ACLU says one in 10 scans misreads a license plate, and fewer than 1% of scanned vehicles are ever connected to a crime.

Some residents say that’s reason enough to end local contracts with the company.

“Stop the contract with this system and take these cameras down,” one resident said.

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“They need a new company that has protections on the gear so you can’t do all that stuff — or there needs to be some checks and balances on it,” another resident said.

Candidates acknowledge concerns, stop short of specifics

Jackson defended the technology’s value in public safety.

“This has been one of the best technologies for us to find people with Alzheimer’s, kids that are being trafficked, and so forth like that,” Jackson said. “So we need to protect everybody, and we need to use every tool we can. But we do need to have safeguards so nobody can abuse that. And I will make sure that that absolutely doesn’t happen. And I think the Attorney General’s already focusing on that. Nobody wants it to be abused because it’s too good a tool for us to protect our children and prosecute criminals.”

Bottoms said she shares residents’ concerns.

“People are deeply concerned, rightfully so, about an invasion of a right to privacy. The misuse of these cameras in some instances,” Bottoms said. “We need to take a comprehensive look at what safeguards we can put in place as a state government. It’s a deep concern. We saw that Florida has even outlawed Flock cameras. It’s clear that they are not always being used in the way that they were intended and the way that they were presented. So to the extent that we can put some safeguards around it to protect the right to privacy, we need to do it as a state.”

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