LOGANVILLE, Ga. — Loganville police cameras read more than 345,000 different license plates in the last 30 days, according to a new public portal the department launched, as officers elsewhere in Georgia face charges for misusing the same system.
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The Loganville Police Department turned on the Flock Safety portal Tuesday. It shows the department searched that plate data 58 times over the same period.
Police Chief Dick Lowry said he tightened his department’s rules to protect a tool he called a “game changer” after officers elsewhere in Georgia were arrested for misusing it.
“Certainly that’s a black eye for all of us in law enforcement,” Lowry said. “But we release this access to the transparency portal ... because in the simplest of terms, we don’t have anything to hide.”
The portal shows the department’s 20 cameras sent 11,796 alerts in that span, including 9,077 for expired Georgia registrations and 38 from a national warrants list. Theft, robbery and vandalism top the portal’s list of offenses behind officers’ searches.
Chad Brodnax said he would rather not have the cameras at all.
“To me, that’s kind of an invasion of privacy,” Brodnax said.
The portal lists immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement and personal use as prohibited.
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Every search requires an incident report case number, Lowry said, and a department coordinator audits searches weekly.
“We haven’t located any instances, not a single instance of improper use of the system,” Lowry said.
Joshua Stewart said he could get behind the cameras if police hold up their end of the bargain.
“If they’re going to use it the right way, then yes,” Stewart said. “But our tax dollars are going towards it, so there’s no reason for it to be misused.”
Lowry credits Flock with playing a large part in the investigation into last year’s deadly shooting at the CVS on Atlanta Highway. Police made an arrest in that case in April.
He said he would not be surprised if state lawmakers change the rules for Flock next legislative session.
“I think that’s unfortunate that that’s necessary, but I can’t really argue that it might not be at this point,” Lowry said.
The portal is available at https://transparency.flocksafety.com/Loganville-ga-pd
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