COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Several Flock Safety cameras in Cobb County were vandalized, and one was stolen.
Some of the cameras targeted were in place outside of an elementary school.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell was live at Oregon Park, where suspects used black spray paint to cover lenses on two different Flock cameras.
Officers were also called out to Due West Elementary School, where a Flock camera pole was removed from the ground and damaged.
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Investigators told Newell that the suspects then took off with the camera.
During the investigation, police identified Niccomedo Annan as one of three people accused of damaging, vandalizing or stealing Flock cameras across the county.
Police said Annan and two others are accused of taking similar action, spray painting the lens on a Flock camera, in a different neighborhood, too.
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Annan has been released from jail. Police are still trying to identify two other suspects.
This series of damage to Flock devices isn’t isolated.
Last week, police arrested a man who set Flock cameras on fire in East Cobb.
A witness told Channel 2 Action News what they saw when that happened.
“I looked up and this camera over here was just shooting fire, and I was afraid it was going to get on the tree, so I immediately called 911,” Terrie Williams told Newell.
Williams said she noticed another camera on fire just moments later.
“The one behind us started catching fire, and that caught on fire, and it was shooting up,” Williams said.
According to Cobb County police, suspect Colby Williams is accused of setting yet a third Flock camera on fire at a nearby park.
“There were some that belonged to Cobb County Government, including Cobb County Police Department, and there were others that were privately owned,” Sgt. Eric Smith said.
As for the most recent case in Oregon Park, the suspect is facing nine charges.
Police haven’t said the Flock vandalism has impacted their investigations.
Zooming out from Cobb County, Georgia has more Flock cameras per person than any other state in the U.S.
And a metro Atlanta family is raising concerns about the automated license plate readers because of how it was impacting their daughter.
Renee Jones told Channel 2 Action News that her daughter was pulled over twice after taking her new car out.
The family learned the recent car purchase had not been updated in the system that triggers Flock Safety alerts.
“This creates a lot more anxiety, to have to prove innocence,” Jones said.
Speaking with Channel 2 Action News, an Emory University professor said Flock cameras operate in real time, but the databases they rely on are sometimes outdated or incorrect.
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