SIGNALDATAAccountability. For the People. Preview
License-plate readers · Cobb County

Cobb County

Using license-plate readers · 2 agencies documented

← Statewide map
Appling CountyAtkinson CountyBacon CountyBaker CountyBaldwin CountyBanks CountyBarrow CountyBartow CountyBen Hill CountyBerrien CountyBibb CountyBleckley CountyBrantley CountyBrooks CountyBryan CountyBulloch CountyBurke CountyButts CountyCalhoun CountyCamden CountyCandler CountyCarroll CountyCatoosa CountyCharlton CountyChatham CountyChattahoochee CountyChattooga CountyCherokee CountyClarke CountyClay CountyClayton CountyClinch CountyCobb CountyCoffee CountyColquitt CountyColumbia CountyCook CountyCoweta CountyCrawford CountyCrisp CountyDade CountyDawson CountyDecatur CountyDeKalb CountyDodge CountyDooly CountyDougherty CountyDouglas CountyEarly CountyEchols CountyEffingham CountyElbert CountyEmanuel CountyEvans CountyFannin CountyFayette CountyFloyd CountyForsyth CountyFranklin CountyFulton CountyGilmer CountyGlascock CountyGlynn CountyGordon CountyGrady CountyGreene CountyGwinnett CountyHabersham CountyHall CountyHancock CountyHaralson CountyHarris CountyHart CountyHeard CountyHenry CountyHouston CountyIrwin CountyJackson CountyJasper CountyJeff Davis CountyJefferson CountyJenkins CountyJohnson CountyJones CountyLamar CountyLanier CountyLaurens CountyLee CountyLiberty CountyLincoln CountyLong CountyLowndes CountyLumpkin CountyMacon CountyMadison CountyMarion CountyMcDuffie CountyMcIntosh CountyMeriwether CountyMiller CountyMitchell CountyMonroe CountyMontgomery CountyMorgan CountyMurray CountyMuscogee CountyNewton CountyOconee CountyOglethorpe CountyPaulding CountyPeach CountyPickens CountyPierce CountyPike CountyPolk CountyPulaski CountyPutnam CountyQuitman CountyRabun CountyRandolph CountyRichmond CountyRockdale CountySchley CountyScreven CountySeminole CountySpalding CountyStephens CountyStewart CountySumter CountyTalbot CountyTaliaferro CountyTattnall CountyTaylor CountyTelfair CountyTerrell CountyThomas CountyTift CountyToombs CountyTowns CountyTreutlen CountyTroup CountyTurner CountyTwiggs CountyUnion CountyUpson CountyWalker CountyWalton CountyWare CountyWarren CountyWashington CountyWayne CountyWebster CountyWheeler CountyWhite CountyWhitfield CountyWilcox CountyWilkes CountyWilkinson CountyWorth County

Cobb County Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
Count not documented
MDJ (May 2025) said the county was considering adding 17 readers to its Flock deal and has contracted with Flock since 2019; WSB-TV (April 2025) said the $213,000 agreement keeps more than 70 cameras running; MDJ (Aug. 2026) reported commissioners approved buying 15 more. No current total found.
Contract
Flock Safety: $213,000 agreement · approved by Cobb County Board of Commissioners April 2025 · Unanimous approval reported April 23, 2025; keeps more than 70 cameras running. Meeting date not given. (WSB Radio, April 23, 2025)
  1. April 2025 Cobb commissioners unanimously approved a $213,000 Flock agreement keeping more than 70 license plate cameras operating. (WSB Radio, April 23, 2025)
  2. May 2025 Commissioners weighed adding 17 plate readers to the county's Flock deal; the county has contracted with Flock since 2019. (Marietta Daily Journal, May 22, 2025)
  3. Aug. 2026 Commissioners approved an agenda item to buy 15 more Flock cameras for county police, ahead of a series of police town halls on the cameras. (Marietta Daily Journal, Aug. 27, 2026)
  4. Aug. 2026 Commission Chair Lisa Cupid said the police department would hold town halls on Flock after residents raised questions at budget hearings. (Cobb County Courier, Aug. 6, 2026)
  5. Aug. 27, 2026 First of four police town halls on plate readers (others Aug. 31, Sept. 1 and Sept. 15). Police said monthly audits are being added to existing random and annual audits. (FOX 5 Atlanta, Aug. 25, 2026; Atlanta News First, Aug. 27, 2026)
  6. Sept. 2026 A man was arrested on charges including third-degree arson and second-degree criminal damage to property after four Cobb Flock cameras, at East Cobb Park and a nearby Home Depot, were shot with projectiles; his arrest warrant says Flock cameras captured the plate that led investigators to him. (Atlanta News First, Sept. 3, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • The $213,000 vote date is entered as 2025-04 (only the article date, April 23, 2025, is known).
  • The Aug. 2026 MDJ article body is paywalled; the dollar amount for the 15 cameras could not be confirmed and is omitted.
  • Police chief named as J.D. Ferrell (ANF) / Dan Ferrell (MDJ caption).

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Smyrna Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
Count not documented
70 new Flock units approved, including 2 drones; split between plate readers and video cameras not given.
Contract
Flock Safety: $5,700,000 over 10 years · approved by Smyrna City Council Dec. 2025 · Unanimous vote at the council's most recent meeting before Dec. 25, 2025; covers Flock cameras, license plate readers and drones. (WSB-TV, Dec. 25, 2025)
  1. Dec. 2025 Smyrna City Council unanimously approved a $5.7 million, 10-year Flock contract for 70 cameras and plate readers, including two drones. (WSB-TV, Dec. 25, 2025)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Exact meeting date not stated; entered as 2025-12.

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.