WHO’S WATCHING? Inside Albany’s Flock network, regional sharing, and post-misuse audit guardrails

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — From city intersections to rural highways, license plate readers are quietly tracking thousands of vehicles across South Georgia every day.Inside the Albany Police Department, the solar-powered cameras manufactured by Flock Safety have revolutionized criminal investigations. But expanding surveillance has also brought mounting scrutiny over who is watching the watchers.“If we were to turn Flock off today, you would set so many things back 20 years,” David Sparks, Senior Crime Intelligence Analyst for the Albany Police Department said. “When they get something that works, they wholly embrace it. And this has changed the outcome of so many situations, good and bad.”In July 2026, five Albany police officers were fired and charged by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) after an internal audit revealed they used the department’s Flock system for personal searches.Now, department analysts are pulling back the curtain on how the technology works, where the data trav