Georgia leads the nation in documented cases of police misusing license plate reader technology, and Sandy Springs is among the departments listed in a new national database.

The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, published a database on Aug. 12 cataloging 170 incidents of automated license plate reader abuse nationwide. Fifty-seven occurred in Georgia, the most of any state. Sandy Springs is among the Georgia locations listed.

The city operates roughly 400 Flock Safety cameras that run around the clock, according to Sandy Springs Police Maj. Mike Lindstrom. A Sandy Springs officer was terminated after an internal investigation found he allegedly ran ALPR searches to support beta testing for Signal 8, a law enforcement software company where he held a second job, WIRED reported. The officer did not cooperate with the investigation.

Sandy Springs is far from alone. In Bibb County, three former sheriff's deputies were arrested and charged with stalking after allegedly using the Flock system to track people they were in personal relationships with: Tony Lewis, Coznavian Stubbs and Joseph Callaway. Three Fayetteville police officers were arrested for searching information on themselves, family members and friends. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested five former Albany Police Department officers on July 6 on charges of misuse of license plate data and violation of oath of office.

At least 20 officers statewide had been arrested for Flock database misuse as of late July, according to Reason.

Christopher Ingraham, an investigative reporter for the Institute for Justice, told The Center Square in a report published by Fulton Neighbor that Flock's new audit tool, introduced in April, was deployed first in Georgia. "And I believe, just looking at the data, it was rolled out first to Georgia, which is why we see so many police departments, you see these headlines, eight officers, six officers, many officers at a time being fired or arrested for misuse of these systems," Ingraham said.

Georgia agencies were early adopters of Flock's technology. The Atlanta-based company's network now spans more than 120,000 cameras nationwide, recording roughly 20 billion plate scans per month. Unlike speed or red-light cameras, the readers capture every vehicle that passes, not just violators.

Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, who chairs the Georgia Senate Public Safety Committee, said Monday, Aug. 24, that the arrests warrant "serious attention." He announced a plan to form a task force aimed at ensuring Flock has more oversight to prevent misuse. Albers said public safety and privacy are "complementary responsibilities of good government."

Flock Safety announced its own reforms on Aug. 14, including cutting default data retention from 30 days to seven, requiring criminal case numbers for every search and making its Audit Assistance tool mandatory for all law enforcement customers by year's end. Only about one-third of customers had adopted the tool voluntarily before the announcement.

Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel for the ACLU, criticized the reforms, saying without independent evaluation there is no way to know whether the tool catches 5% or 95% of violators.

Residents can check whether their plate has been searched through Flock's system at HaveIBeenFlocked.com. The Senate task force has no announced meeting date.