Flock cameras have been at the center of an ongoing debate about balancing personal privacy and public safety.
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Recently, the technology has faced growing scrutiny after dozens of Georgia police officers have been fired, resigned, or otherwise disciplined for misusing it.
However, police say the technology is a valuable tool for solving crimes and has been the subject of misinformation.
Dunwoody police gave Channel 2 Action News an inside look at how officers use the technology and what safeguards are in place before a traffic stop or investigative search occurs.
“We use numerous pieces of technology throughout our city. So access cameras, Flock cameras, Genitech LPRs, Flock LPR,” said Patrick Krieg with Dunwoody police.
The main cameras behind the recent arrests are Flock’s License plate reading cameras. According to Dunwoody’s transparency portal, the technology captured images of more than 800,000 vehicles in the past 30 days.
Dunwoody police say Flock will alert police officers if a tag is associated with something like a warrant, a stolen vehicle, a missing person, or another law enforcement alert.
“When they get an alert, they will check it,” Dunwoody police Sgt. Michael Cheek said. “The first thing they do is get a still image picture of the tag that passed the camera.”
Cheek said officers are not supposed to act on a Flock alert alone.
Instead, officers first verify the information through the National Crime Information Center, commonly known as NCIC.
“If I check that tag and find out that there is no warrant, that car does not get stopped,” Cheek said. “NCIC will always be the final authority.”
However, many recent arrests of officers have centered on misuse of the system’s search function, which allows officers investigating crimes to search historical license plate reader data.
Cheek says that officers must enter both a reason for the search and a case number before conducting an investigative search.
“It absolutely requires a case number, or the system won’t let you search it,” Cheek said.
Patrick Krieg said the department also conducts audits to catch potential misuse.
Police also sought to address concerns about what information the cameras collect.
Officials said the department’s license plate readers capture still images of vehicles and license plates, not continuous video.
“No, it is not following you around,” Cheek said. “All it is doing is taking pictures of things that are within the public view.”
There are Flock cameras that do take video, but they are a different product.
The city operates various technologies, including pan-tilt-zoom cameras, each serving different purposes. Krieg said those cameras are placed in locations like parks and serve a different function than license plate readers.
According to Dunwoody police, Flock cameras have helped officers locate missing children, identify wanted suspects and investigate burglaries.
Flock is also rolling out its own new guardrails. At the end of this year, all agencies using the technology will need to include a reason and case number before conducting a search.
Dunwoody Police say they have been following that policy for months.
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