Resident urges Statesboro to audit Flock Safety ALPR system; police chief defends use

James Hagen, a Statesboro resident, told the mayor and council he is asking the city to reconsider renewing its Flock Safety contract and to require an independent security audit. “There’s concern about being in violation of privacy since they record every vehicle that passes by regardless of whether the driver was part of a crime,” Hagen said, listing worries about warrantless access, false positives and cybersecurity lapses.

Hagen told the council that Flock units “photograph every vehicle that passes by and then record data about them, like license plates, make and model,” and he noted published incidents in other jurisdictions where exposed credentials or misconfigured cameras allowed outside access. “I’m requesting that the city of Statesboro reconsider renewing their Flock Safety contract and at the very least conduct safety audits,” he said.

Police Chief Graham answered that the units record only public roadways and that the department uses them as a precision tool to identify specific vehicles linked to crimes rather than to stop large numbers of unrelated drivers. The chief described recent cases in which ALPR data helped police find a suspect vehicle within minutes of a shooting and later locate a missing person’s vehicle that led investigators to an arrest. “Within a minute and a half of getting that information, we had identified the suspect vehicle,” he said. He added the department recovered “about 30 stolen vehicles just using the Flock system” last year.

On oversight and safeguards, Chief Graham said department policy governs how officers may query the system and what filters they can set. “We tell the officers what they can use it for, what they can’t use it for, and if someone was found to have misused the system, then they would face disciplinary action, up to termination,” he said. He also noted officers can configure filters so they do not receive alerts for routine registration or insurance lapses if they choose.

Hagen said he remains concerned about cybersecurity risks, citing public reports of exposed Flock logins and archives in other jurisdictions. The council and staff encouraged Hagen to meet with the chief and the city’s IT team to review the system’s security and to discuss possible audits. The council did not take immediate action on the contract at the meeting; staff said they would follow up with the complainant and review the matter further.