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License-plate readers · Chatham County

Chatham County

Using license-plate readers · 2 agencies documented

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Savannah Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
74
Flock's transparency portal lists 74 cameras (LPR and other). A December 2025 council item said 40 more LPRs and 10 pan-tilt-zoom cameras would bring the citywide total from 74 to 124; the portal still showed 74 when checked Oct. 21, 2026.
Contract
Flock Safety: $193,500 one year (not to exceed), annual subscriptions and maintenance · On the Dec. 11, 2025 council agenda with a staff recommendation of approval; council action not confirmed. Sole-source; paid from SCAD Serves Grant funds; adds 40 LPRs and 10 PTZ cameras. (City of Savannah, Dec. 11, 2025)
  1. Dec. 11, 2025 Council agenda item to let the city manager sign a Flock contract of up to $193,500, funded by the SCAD Serves grant, for 40 more license plate readers and 10 pan-tilt-zoom cameras, raising the city total from 74 to 124. (City of Savannah, Dec. 11, 2025)
  2. July 27, 2026 SPD began an internal investigation into use of its Flock system. The department's audit-assist tool had flagged 127 of about 39,000 Flock searches run that year; after manual review SPD found 34 searches unjustified. (WTOC, Aug. 10, 2026; WTOC, Aug. 3, 2026)
  3. July 31, 2026 Four officers and two civilian employees were placed on administrative leave. Police said searches involved personal acquaintances and family members, and that one employee gave someone outside the department access to the system. Chief Lenny Gunther said a formal Flock policy was being written and that the audit tool would run weekly. (WTOC, Aug. 3, 2026; WTOC, Aug. 10, 2026)
  4. Aug. 2026 The six employees were fired; WTOC reported the GBI investigation was ongoing. Aldermen Kurtis Purtee and Detric Leggett proposed more frequent audits and real-time flagging of searches through the city's real-time crime center. (WTOC, Aug. 10, 2026)
  5. Oct. 21, 2026 Flock portal checked: 74 cameras, 30-day retention. (Flock Safety, Oct. 21, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Portal (checked 2026-10-21): 30-day retention; last 30 days: 351,389 unique vehicles detected, 98,173 hotlist hits, 2,007 searches; states data 'is never sold to 3rd parties'.
  • Leave date: the Aug. 3 article says 'Friday' (July 31, 2026). Firing date given only as reported Aug. 7, so the event uses YYYY-MM.

From agency records.

Chatham County Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
Count not documented
The department's public Flock portal shows its camera count, but the portal URL could not be loaded and news coverage does not give the number.
  1. 2020 Chief Jeff Hadley said CCPD activated its license plate reader technology in 2020, with a policy in place beforehand. (WTOC, Sept. 4, 2026)
  2. July 2026 CCPD launched a public Flock transparency portal showing deployed cameras, search counts and downloadable recent search records. The department said data is deleted every 30 days and each search is audited monthly. (WTOC, July 21, 2026)
  3. Aug. 31, 2026 An officer quit on Aug. 31, 2026, as CCPD began questioning him about possibly misusing Flock in late 2024 and early January 2025; the department referred the case to the GBI and said its monthly audits, which start in January 2025, had missed it. (WTOC, Sept. 4, 2026)

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Statewide

  1. May 8, 2018 Gov. Nathan Deal signed House Bill 79 (Act 452), which passed the House 169-2 and the Senate 47-0 and took effect July 1, 2018. It added a Title 35 code section limiting how long police may keep plate-reader data, allowing agencies to share it, setting penalties for misuse and requiring policies. (LegiScan, May 8, 2018)
  2. July 1, 2018 Under O.C.G.A. 35-1-22, police may collect plate-reader data but may access it only for a law enforcement purpose, defined as investigating an offense or activity an agency has started. Data must be destroyed within 30 months unless it is tied to a toll violation or needed for a law enforcement purpose. Agencies may share data with each other and may hire a company to hold it. Each agency must keep a use and training policy. Misuse is a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature, and the data is exempt from the Open Records Act. (FindLaw, March 28, 2024; National Conference of State Legislatures, Sept. 28, 2026; Georgia General Assembly, 2018)
  3. July 1, 2018 The Department of Public Safety's plate-reader policy 6.09, in the version revised July 1, 2018, limits use to law enforcement purposes, names the Criminal Interdiction Unit commander as LPR administrator, requires officers to verify a hit before a traffic stop, logs data shared with other agencies, and purges data after 30 months unless it involves a toll violation or an investigation. It also covers readers owned by the State Road and Tollway Authority for HOT-lane enforcement. (Georgia Department of Public Safety, July 1, 2018)
  4. Oct. 16, 2024 GDOT guidance took effect for police plate readers on state routes and interstates. Agencies apply for a single permit per jurisdiction, renewed every three years. The guidance sets spacing limits (generally one reader per direction per 2 miles of state route in a city, one per direction between interstate interchanges, plus extras at city or county lines). The requesting agency signs a concurrence letter promising to make the data available to the wider law enforcement community at no cost and sends it through the Department of Public Safety. GDOT will revoke the permit if the data stops being available. (Georgia Department of Transportation, Oct. 16, 2024; Georgia Department of Transportation, Oct. 3, 2024; Georgia Department of Transportation, date not shown)
  5. Feb. 24, 2026 Attorney General Chris Carr led 19 states in an amicus brief asking the 11th Circuit to reject a Fourth Amendment challenge to police plate readers in Schemel v. City of Marco Island, Florida. The brief cites Georgia examples from the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Statesboro, DeKalb County and Lawrenceville police. (Georgia Attorney General's Office, Feb. 24, 2026; WSB-TV, Feb. 25, 2026)
  6. July 6, 2026 The GBI arrested five former Albany police officers on charges of misusing license plate data and violating their oath of office, after Albany police asked for an investigation following an internal Flock audit. More GBI arrests over plate-reader searches followed that summer, including a Conyers police dispatch supervisor on July 22 and four former Savannah police employees (announced Aug. 21). In each case the local department asked for the investigation after its own audit. (Georgia Bureau of Investigation, July 6, 2026; Georgia Bureau of Investigation, July 23, 2026; Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Aug. 21, 2026; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 9, 2026)
  7. Aug. 25, 2026 State Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell), chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, said a task force formed by the Georgia Sheriffs' Association and the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police was reviewing misuse cases and agency policies with Flock Safety and would report before the 2027 session. He did not commit to legislation. The review covers only cameras run by law enforcement. (Atlanta News First (via WTOC), Aug. 25, 2026)

State agencies

Georgia State Patrol (Department of Public Safety)

Status
Program documented, current use unconfirmed
Vendors
Vendor not named in source
Cameras
Count not documented
65 mobile readers in 2018 (WSB-TV); no current count found.
  1. 2018 WSB-TV reported that the State Patrol had 65 mobile plate readers statewide and scanned 42,416,383 plates in 2017, plus 274,617 on May 1-2, 2018. (WSB-TV / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2018)
  2. July 1, 2018 DPS policy 6.09 set the rules for the agency's plate readers: law enforcement use only, a 30-month purge, logged sharing with other agencies under a written agreement, and rules for SRTA toll-lane readers. (Georgia Department of Public Safety, July 1, 2018)
  3. Oct. 16, 2024 Under GDOT's plate-reader guidance, local requests to put readers on state rights of way go through DPS first. The DPS LPR coordinator is responsible for making sure data from permitted readers is available to the wider law enforcement community. (Georgia Department of Transportation, Oct. 16, 2024)
Conflicts and open questions
  • No current State Patrol plate-reader contract, vendor or count was found. Status is unconfirmed because the only documented use of its own readers dates to 2018. Open Records request needed for DPS LPR inventory, contracts and HIDTA agreement.

From agency records.

State Road and Tollway Authority

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Vendor not named in source
Cameras
Count not documented
No count found.
  1. July 1, 2018 DPS policy says SRTA owns plate readers used for HOT-lane enforcement under an MoU with DPS. Troopers using SRTA readers must use SRTA software, and SRTA stores that data. (Georgia Department of Public Safety, July 1, 2018)
  2. June 8, 2026 Clayton County police's plate-reader SOP says SRTA keeps its own toll-related plate-reader data through Peach Pass. (Clayton County Police Department (PowerDMS), June 8, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Toll-enforcement readers. The state law exempts data tied to a toll violation from the 30-month destruction rule.

From agency records.