ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — From city intersections to rural highways, license plate readers are quietly tracking thousands of vehicles across South Georgia every day.

Inside the Albany Police Department, the solar-powered cameras manufactured by Flock Safety have revolutionized criminal investigations. But expanding surveillance has also brought mounting scrutiny over who is watching the watchers.

“If we were to turn Flock off today, you would set so many things back 20 years,” David Sparks, Senior Crime Intelligence Analyst for the Albany Police Department said. “When they get something that works, they wholly embrace it. And this has changed the outcome of so many situations, good and bad.”

In July 2026, five Albany police officers were fired and charged by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) after an internal audit revealed they used the department’s Flock system for personal searches.

Now, department analysts are pulling back the curtain on how the technology works, where the data travels, and how that investigation sparked stricter digital guardrails.

An Alert System, Not a Live Tracker

Inside the Albany Police Department’s Real-Time Information Center, analysts say the biggest misconception is that the cameras are watching everyday citizens.

“The number one thing I think the public needs to know: we do not track any one person unless there is an actual justifiable cause,” Sparks said. “We’re not just willy-nilly, randomly grabbing somebody off the street and looking.”

Instead, cameras monitor traffic on main roads, pinging only when a vehicle has been entered into the system for an active warrant, stolen tag, or hit-and-run investigation.

When a camera flags a wanted car, civilian analysts inside the center receive the alert instantly. From their desks, they track the vehicle’s direction of travel and dispatch live updates over the radio to officers on duty.

Who Has Access?

Within the department, access to the database is strictly controlled.

Sparks explained that civilian access is limited exclusively to intelligence analysts working in the RTIC whose primary job is monitoring live feeds. Sworn officers across patrol and criminal investigations also have logins, but all users must complete training on system protocols and acceptable use before gaining access.

“Civilians, there’s a very limited number of civilians who have access to the Flock system. In actuality, only those civilians who work in the Real-Time Information Center, who are intelligence analysts have access to it,” Sparks said. “Every officer who is in investigations or in uniform bureau or any sworn officer has access. The key is and this goes for civilians too, all of them have to go through a small training.”

Sharing Beyond City Limits

While Albany Police maintains its own network of cameras, the system connects directly to surrounding departments across the Southwest region.

Sparks pointed to a local double-homicide case where a suspect fled an Albany mobile home park in the dark at 2:00 a.m. While night footage only captured a gray truck, Sparks searched the same camera 12 hours prior during daylight, uncovering a full description of the truck, the license plate, and the drivers profile. That vehicle was quickly spotted and stopped miles away by officers in Tifton using their own Flock cameras.

WALB asked how the department keeps track of when someone logs in, and what happens when the system spots something that doesn’t add up.

Sparks responded, “The system itself automatically logs... Joe Smith from Americus logged in and ran this license plate. We are alerted to that, we have to go in and check it everyday. We have a trail that Joe Smith was in the system and he’s got to give a reason. The system now requires that they put in a reason why they were in our system.”

Stricter Audits Following Misuse

Under Georgia statute (O.C.G.A. § 35-1-22), accessing license plate reader data under false pretenses or for personal reasons is a high-and-aggravated misdemeanor.

Following the July firing of five Albany officers, the department reinforced its internal audit procedures.

Every query, whether conducted by an Albany officer or an outside agency now requires a verified case number and a documented reason before results are displayed. The system also flags external users automatically, noting who logged in and which plate was searched.

To catch violations, Sparks said APD opens and reviews system audit logs every two weeks, watching for automated red flags.

He said, “As it finds anomalies as far as searching... like, hey, this one person searched this tag five days in a row and gave the reason the exact same time five times and had different case numbers — something like that would throw a huge red flag to us. And then at that point, you get supervision involved... and let the chain of command handle and do the investigation.”

30-Day Purge

While Georgia law permits agencies to retain license plate reader data for up to 30 months, Albany’s unflagged camera data permanently purges from the server after 30 days unless formally saved as evidence for court.

Department leaders say those strict internal controls - including mandatory incident numbers, automated anomaly detection, and regular bi-weekly audits—are the standard designed to catch misuse before it leaves the building.

Still, investigators say when used by the book, the Flock system closes cases that otherwise hit dead ends.

“That’s the kind of thing these cameras do. We’ve had numerous stolen vehicles that we pulled over and car is stolen, they arrest people on the spot,” Sparks said. “Criminals have to get around the city and they get around the city in a vehicle. Almost every single major crime there is a vehicle involved and that gives us avenues to go down we normally wouldn’t have.”

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