Flock cameras fire investigation opens in Georgia after two ALPRs burn
Dougherty County police say two Flock Safety license plate readers were intentionally damaged, adding to scrutiny of the ALPR vendor.
By Renata Fuchs · Policy Reporter
· 4 min read
Dougherty County Police Department in Georgia is asking residents for information in a Flock cameras fire investigation after two Flock Safety automated license plate readers burned near Albany. Police first examined whether the devices had failed, then classified the two incidents as criminal damage to property after reviewing evidence at both sites; repair costs, suspects and a motive were not disclosed.
The department said the incidents occurred in the 2400 block of Radium Springs Road near Williamsburg Drive, according to an update reported by Fox 5 Atlanta. The locations described by police appear to line up closely with two ALPR sites listed on deflock.org, a community-run map of license plate reader deployments in the United States.
What happened to the Flock cameras in Dougherty County?
Police have said two Flock Safety cameras were set on fire and that investigators are treating the cases as property crimes. The department has not publicly described the ignition source, released images of a suspect or said whether the two fires were connected beyond the shared device type and nearby locations.
Flock Safety sells ALPR systems and other public-safety hardware, including cameras, gunshot detection tools and drones. Its core government business is built around camera networks used by police to scan license plates and search those records against law enforcement queries. The company says its tools help agencies investigate crime, while civil liberties groups argue the systems create broad location surveillance for drivers who are not suspected of wrongdoing.
The privacy dispute is no longer limited to advocacy campaigns. The American Civil Liberties Union has said fewer than 1% of cars passing through Flock systems are linked to crime, while the plate data is still collected and uploaded to a national database searchable by law enforcement. The Institute for Justice said this month it had identified at least 26 cases in which officers allegedly misused ALPR data to stalk romantic interests, with most of those incidents taking place since 2024.
Flock has repeatedly said Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have direct access to its systems. Reports cited in the public debate have found local police conducting Flock searches for ICE, and Customs and Border Protection has accessed Flock data in immigration-related enforcement.
Some agencies are reconsidering those tradeoffs. The Los Angeles Police Department said last week it would allow its Flock contract to lapse, three years after signing an agreement to access cameras deployed across the city but not owned by the department. Dean Gialamas, the LAPD’s chief information officer, said privacy, security and data-sharing questions would need to be resolved before a new agreement.
Physical attacks are becoming part of the Flock backlash
The Georgia fires follow other reported attacks on Flock equipment. In North Suffolk, Virginia, Jeffrey Scott Sovern, 41, was charged in connection with alleged tampering involving Flock ALPR cameras between April and October 2025. He has described the technology as unconstitutional in a recent hearing, according to reporting cited in the case. Authorities accuse him of acts including turning cameras away from roads, taking apart poles and removing components such as wires and batteries. He faces 13 counts of destruction of property, six counts of petit larceny and six counts of possession of burglary tools.
In Oregon, Eugene and Springfield canceled Flock contracts in December 2025, less than two months after three poles holding Flock cameras were cut down by unknown vandals. In Park Ridge, Illinois, four of the city’s eight Flock cameras were knocked down over two nights in early June. Police chief Bob Kampwirth reportedly suggested the incidents might be tied to a TikTok trend encouraging destruction of the devices.
Flock has acknowledged intentional damage to its equipment in a recent customer blog post promoting an add-on protection plan that covers repair or replacement of eligible cameras at no extra cost. The company addressed rumors that vandals were looking for precious metals inside the devices, but did not use that post to address the broader privacy criticism around its products.
This story draws on original reporting from The Register.
