The federal and state Constitutions give citizens protection from surveillance by governments, but they do not provide protection against surveillance by individuals or nongovernmental agents.
At present, there are few restrictions in Georgia on how individual companies, such as Flock Safety, manage the data they gather through Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) or other devices, such as video doorbells.
It is unclear if AI models have access to the data being gathered by individual surveillance companies, thereby circumventing any restrictions local law enforcement agencies, private businesses, or Home Owners Associations (HOAs) who gather the data place on their use.
Flock Safety has a setting on the data it gathers that would allow a local law enforcement agency to be alerted of a possible violation of state law regulating reproductive rights, but Athens-Clarke County Police Department has that alert “turned off.”
Athens-Clarke County Police Department also does not allow the federal government to use the data it gathers from its 33 cameras on streets throughout the county, but that is a local decision, and the Flock data could be used in federal immigration actions in other jurisdictions.
These are some of the findings from a Town Hall meeting that Georgia House District 121 Rep. Eric Gisler held late last month at Cine in downtown Athens. The focus of the meeting was Flock cameras.
Gisler was joined by Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jerry Saulters, journalist Chris Dowd, attorney Al Fargione, and podcast host Drew Abney.
Dowd, Fargione, Gisler, and Saulters responded to questions from Abney, who served as moderator, on a variety of issues involving use of the cameras in Athens-Clarke County and beyond and then to questions from the audience.
Format
In opening the session, Gisler said “Flock is a particular product. It's a brand. But the conversation is really about the appropriate use of surveillance technology.”
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| Abney 9/28/2026 |
“This is intended to be a community conversation,” Gisler told the audience.
Flock is a type of Automated License Plate Reader marketed by Flock Safety of Atlanta.
Gisler introduced the panel, beginning with Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Saulters, who was joined by three deputies, in the rear of the room.
Dowd, creator of Athens Politics Nerd, an independent media outlet, has written about Flock cameras and their use in Athens-Clarke County.
Fargione, a trial attorney with Boggs, Cowan and Fargione in Oconee County, is an Oconee County resident.
Abney is co-host of AthChat podcast.
About 40 people were in the audience of the darkened Cine theater on Sept. 28.
After the introduction, Gisler turned the program over to Abney and joined Saulters, Dowd, and Fargione as panelists.
Flock And Their Prevalence
Dowd, called upon by Abney for a “lay of the land,” said the Athens-Clarke County Police Department has been using license plate readers for about 10 years and Flock for about five–a time frame confirmed by Saulters.
“These are black cameras that are solar powered,” Dowd said. “So they have a solar panel on top. And then there's a camera that faces the road. And it takes pictures of every car that passes.”
“And then AI will read the license plate number off of it, and then that goes into a database, which can be searched by the police or whoever's doing searching there,” Dowd continued.
“So that's the technology,” he said. “But Flock, the company, so they're the biggest provider of this specific technology, and they're based in Georgia.”
“So I think many police departments in Georgia have been using Flock for a while now,” he said, “And also just other private agencies as well, like Home Owners Associations. Some businesses will use them too.”
“So it's pretty common, pretty widespread in Georgia,” Dowd said, “and Flock has other cameras as well. They have sort of AI facial recognition cameras.”
Saulters said that the facial recognition cameras are not in use by his Department.
Saulters Responds
Saulters confirmed that his department has used ALPRs “for a long time here in Athens...Even for riding around parking lots, checking tags, things of that nature.”
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| Saulters 9/28/2026 |
“A lot of people in the community, as Chris mentioned, Home Owners Associations, others, use them,” he said. “They are public-facing. Ours do not record video.”
“They take a picture, and now if there's damage on a vehicle or a roof rack, let's say, on a pickup truck, then yes, it has that capability if we're searching for that type of vehicle,” Saulters said.
“We're always looking for how can we use tools and technology to make our community safer,” Saulters told Abney. “They didn't come in and solicit for us. We learned about Flock, what they were doing.”
“Right now, the Police Department has 33 cameras that's in the community, and out of those 33 cameras, we look at crime data objectively and say, ‘Where should we place these cameras to ensure that we can try to solve crimes?’"
Oconee County was referenced only indirectly in the Sept. 28 Town Hall, but Oconee County Sheriff James Hale told The Oconee Enterprise that he is using Flock cameras and has “prioritized putting them up at the entrance/exit points around the county lines.”
DeFlock Maps, a web site created by volunteers who report Flock cameras, shows the Oconee County devices on SR 316, on U.S. 78, on Price Mill Road, on U.S. 441, on SR 15, on Barnett Shoals Road, on Simonton Bridge Road, on Macon Highway, on Epps Bridge Parkway, on Jimmy Daniell Road, on South Burson Avenue, on Atlanta Highway, as well as in Butler’s Crossing and at various other locations throughout the county.
House District 121 consists of Oconee County Precincts South, Central, and Dark Corner, and parts of Clarke County.
More From Saulters
“Flock or ALPR cameras is not the greatest crime-fighting tool we have in Athens-Clarke County,” Saulters said. “The greatest crime-fighting tool we have is the eyes and ears of the community.”
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| Flock Camera On Bishop Farms Parkway In Oconee County 10/19/2026 (Click To Enlarge) |
“But how it's used, really, it's an investigative tool,” he added.
“Any neighborhood, anyone can buy a Flock camera, and they put it at the corner in the neighborhoods,” Saulters said.
He said an Athens-Clarke County “neighborhood had had some issues with crime, with gang-related shootings, and they felt it was important that they did something for the community. So they installed. They paid for those cameras.”
“And when they do that, that gives us access to view that (data),” he continued. “So that goes into the system.”
The Athens-Clarke County Police Department is able to query the data gathered by these neighborhoods or HOAs, he said.
Legal Perspective
“So does a person have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they're outside in public?” Abney asked Fargione.
“So that's a really good question,” Fargione said, “and the general answer, according to the United States Supreme Court in a case called Katz, is no.”
“Generally, the answer is, if you are outside in public, you have foregone your reasonable expectation to any sort of privacy,” he said.
“Now, there are some exceptions to that,” he said. “But the answer remains the same is that once you have gone outside and entered into the public realm, the law tells us that you have kind of foregone your opportunity to protect yourself and your privacy.”
“Now, there's some exceptions, like the curtilage, which is like the shed, not your house, but the shed or the area in the front of your house,” he said.
“But generally, if you are walking down Main Street, you have foregone your right to be private.”
“And that's long and short of it,” he said, “and that's what the Georgia courts say, and that's what the federal courts are saying. That's what the U.S. Supreme Court has said.”
Fargione did caution that the issue is not fully settled about what is public space, and he said the correct answer is that “it depends” on circumstances.
More From Fargione
Abney asked Fargione: “In the case of the Flock cameras, we're in our own property, in our cars, that is now in the public space. Does that add any nuance, or is this an ‘it depends’ as well?”
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| Fargione 9/28/2026 |
“I think that this is an interesting topic because we don't have an answer,” Fargione said. “The U.S. Supreme Court hasn't weighed in on it. It's going to very soon. I think it's going to get the opportunity.”
Fargione said a case “that's being heard by the 11th Circuit (Court of Appeals), which is the Circuit that we sit in federally, about Flock cameras.”
“So the 11th Circuit ought to give us some sort of guidance,” he said. “And they're the first federal Circuit that has been asked to answer that question.”
Fargione said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that location data gathered by Google from cell phone usage can only be used in a criminal case with a search warrant, “and that's kind of the closest thing we have right now to draw a parallel to the Flock cameras or the Automated License Plate Readers.”
“But I should say, I think people are going to argue that it is not the same thing,” Fargione said.
“And I think there's a strong argument to say,” Fargione continued, “that your cell phone, which you can hide and conceal in your pocket, which you can put a lock on, which you don't publicly display, and the data that it provides to a third-party app, is possibly unique from a vehicle that weighs 2,000, 3,000 pounds.”
The vehicle “has a license plate, is registered with the state of Georgia or some other state, which allows you to operate it on the roads, and you're driving down Main Street,” he continued.
“I think there's a good argument to be made that those two things might not be the same,” he said.
Gisler On Legislation
“So you've heard from the folks on the panel thus far,” Abney said to Gisler. “and I guess the question now remains, how do we balance some legitimate concerns and interests here?”
“On one end, giving law enforcement tools to solve crimes,” he said. “So how do you balance that with the folks who feel like their privacy rights are being violated?”
“That's why we're having this discussion, to figure that balance out,” Gisler responded.
“And I've looked into this a bit. There are some things that other states are doing,” he said.
“I think Florida has banned flock cameras outright,” he said. (The ALPR ban in Florida is on state highways.)
“In other places, I think Washington State has kind of an audit and transparency kind of approach to it. (Washington State has passed a Driver Privacy Act that regulates how state agencies can use ALPRs.)
“The State of Virginia, I think, has put controls up front,” he said. (The Virginia law sets up data reporting requirements and limits law enforcement use to devices approved by the state Division of Purchases and Supply and meets the information security requirements of the Virginia Information Technology Agency.)
“Historically, it does kind of seem like it's kind of in the honor system” in Georgia, Gisler said, “and we've seen where that's failed us a bit.”
“So I think it's important to have this conversation now, going into the next session,” he said, “so that we can figure out what it is we want to do.”
Reducing Crime
In response to a question from Abney, Dowd said the Flock cameras “definitely seems like it makes it easier to catch the criminals afterward, but does it actually reduce crime?”
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| Dowd 9/28/2026 |
“And I think it's a pretty important point if we're being asked to give up so much privacy,” he said. “Is it actually making our lives better, would be my question.”
“That's a tough one,” Saulters said. “We have had crime reduction in Athens-Clarke County over the last four years. I don't know if I would credit Flock or any technology, really.”
“The technology, of course, helps us catch people quicker,” he said. “But I would also say that we policed before Flock ever was invented, and we'll police after, if that's the case.”
“And so, I don't think it has done anything really to reduce crime,” he said.
“I guess my question would be who voted on this?” Dowd asked. “I'm not sure the state ever took a vote on this. I don't think the mayor and commission ever took a vote on it.”
The Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission do approve the budget of the Police Department. In Oconee County, the Board of Commissioners approve the Sheriff’s budget, but the Sheriff is a Constitutional Officer elected by the citizenry who has great control over what equipment he uses.
Current Law, Abuses
Saulters told the audience that “There's currently a state law that prohibits misuse of the system.”
“It's a misdemeanor to violate the statute,” he said, “But if you're an officer, a sworn officer in the state of Georgia, then that’s a violation of oath of office, which is a felony crime. And so when you're seeing across the state where these officers are getting arrested, they're being charged with felony violation of oath of office.”
The Georgia law, which went into effect in 2025, states that “Any person who knowingly requests, uses, obtains, or attempts to obtain captured license plate data of a law enforcement agency under false pretenses or for any purpose other than for a law enforcement purpose shall for each such offense, upon conviction thereof, be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature.”
“As we're all aware, we did have a misuse,” Saulters said, referring to the use of the Flock data by one of his officers in a marital dispute involving the officer.
“Of course, I was very upset when that happened, and we immediately moved and terminated that, and GBI investigated, found probable cause, and that person has been arrested.” GBI is for Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
And at that point,” Saulters said, “we shut down all users except lieutenants or above.”
He said he also put into place a set of procedures, including a requirement that a captain or above must approve use of the Flock data, and the requesting officer must create a record showing the reason for the request.
Restrictions On Access
Saulters said that his department has told Flock to only store data captured by its 33 cameras for only 30 days.
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| Gisler 9/28/2026 |
“Flock might say that video rolls off and is deleted and not accessible after 30 days,” Gisler said. If AI also can read the data, he said, it could create its own record.
“I don't know that we have the visibility into the internal workings of these companies to really say for sure that it's not happening,” he said, referring to use beyond the 30 days agreed to by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.
“So it's a nationwide network,” Dowd said, “and there's so many access points that to me, it's almost impossible to secure the system. Even if we had all of the best tools and training to prevent abuse here, we don't know if it's being prevented at all the other agencies that we're sharing with.”
“Chris is right that we were doing in-state agencies as well as a few surrounding states,” Saulters said. “We have since turned that off. We only share with Georgia agencies, and they have to put in a crime and what they're looking for, and we can actually set in the system now that they can't look for certain things.”
“We absolutely have it turned off in the system for reproductive rights, for immigration, and we do not share with federal authorities at all,” Saulters said.
“You can set the system to alert for what you're looking for on certain crimes,” he said.
Surveillance By Nongovernmental Agencies, Individuals
“So what legal protections exist today in regards to the intersection of the privacy rights and surveillance technologies?” Abney asked Fargione.
“That's a tricky question, because surveillance is not just a government thing anymore,” Fargione said.
“The laws generally are designed to protect us from the government,” he said. “The U.S. Constitution protects us from the government. It doesn't protect us from one another.”
“The Georgia Constitution protects us from the state government,” he continued. “It does not protect us from one another.”
“Generally, the government needs a warrant,” Fargione said. “So it's not like the police department just shows up and says, ‘Hey, I need this.’ There's a third party, and that party being the judge, who has to say, ‘Yes, you've met the standard necessary for me to sign this, allowing you to access that information.’"
Video doorbells record what people walking down the street are doing, he said, and some people go “downtown on Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, interviewing inebriated college students and posting their responses to TikTok.”
“The point I'm making with that is you have individual citizens who are constantly recording what is going on around them,” he said. “And while the government needs a warrant to access information, if I'm just recording all the time and I capture something that I think of as of interest, there's nothing that prevents me as an individual citizen from handing it over to the chief.”
“So the answer is there aren't a whole lot of protections for mass surveillance from everyday people,” Fargione said.
The question, he said, is “How do you balance between my interest in seeing who's at my front door and the interest of the person who happens to be walking by on the street when my Ring doorbell captures them doing whatever it is they're doing?”
Question Of Gisler
“What is your personal, not candidate, opinion on Flock cameras?” an audience member asked of Gisler. “Are you for them or against them?”
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| Panel 9/28/2026 |
“It's hard to say yes or no,” Gisler responded.
He said he has read reports that say use of the cameras “doesn't really show a marked difference in crime closure rates.”
“So it's easy to look at that and say maybe it's not worth the investment, maybe it's not worth the risk,” he said. “But I imagine that if it's your family that was violently attacked, and these tools allow the police to apprehend the suspect quickly and get them off the streets, you probably don't care much about those closure rates.”
“So it's just a very complicated issue,” he continued, “and you can't just blanket be for or against. I think that there are clear cases where these tools, this technology has shown obvious benefits, but there have been very clear violations of public trust, too.”
“And so if there's a way to kind of thread that needle and keep access to the positive parts and the good outcomes while protecting against over-surveilling the population, I think we ought to look at how we can do that,” Gisler said.
Other Questions, Responses
Saulters said that he set the policy that the Flock data is stored for only 30 days.
“Flock really doesn't give you a standard to say what you should or shouldn't do,” he said. “It's up to you. It could be 30 months. I believe 30 months is too long...Ours is at 30 days, and that is just through looking at best practices, what other agencies are doing.”
Abney paraphrased an audience question, saying “People are worried that we're building surveillance systems, some would say surveillance states, that mimic other countries that we don't want to become. What stops us from becoming one of those countries?”
“This is a very real concern,” Gisler said. “If you've used AI at all, you know what it can do. It can watch a video. It can make notes on it. Flock can delete a video after 30 days, but that database entry could be there forever.”
“And that's real, and that is terrifying,” he said. “It really depends on who has access to the systems and how they intend to use it.”
“So I think it's a legitimate question, and that's where I think some of that transparency and auditing and reporting can maybe help out,” he said.
“There's nothing that stops an HOA from giving video footage, giving evidence, giving recorded digital information, whatever you want to call it, to the police department on a voluntary basis,” Fargione said in response to a question. “That's their prerogative.”
“We own the data, so Flock doesn't get the data per se,” Saulters said in responses to another question. “They do own the cameras, and what they have access or don't have access to, I really don't know. But in the contract, we own the data, and I know it's stored in the Amazon (Web Services) GovCloud.”
Video
The video below is of the entire Town Hall meeting on Sept. 28, 2026.
I could not attend the meeting, because I attended the Oconee County Republican Party meeting at that same time.
Ann Hollifield, using a camera and tripod I lent her, recorded the meeting for me. (Hollifield is my wife. She has worked with Gisler in his campaign.)
The meeting began with an introduction by Gisler, after which he became a panel member.
Abney asked each of the panelists to make introductory comments, beginning at 3:50 in the video.
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