From Newsgroup: alt.privacy

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Savannah police placed six employees on
administrative leave Friday after an internal audit found misuse of the departmentrCOs Flock camera system.

The employees include four officers and two civilians. The Savannah
Police Department said they are accused of running searches unrelated to
law enforcement, including searches on personal acquaintances and family members. One officer is also accused of giving an outside agency
unauthorized access to the system.

alleged misuse of license plate reader system

City officials defend Flock cameras
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, Police Chief Lenny Gunther, and City Manager
Jay Melder gathered Monday to address the findings and reaffirm their
support for the camera program.

rCLTo be honest IrCOm disappointed, IrCOm totally pissed off about it,rCY Johnson said.

Johnson pointed to last weekrCOs Fellwood Park shooting as an example of
the technologyrCOs value, saying Flock cameras helped officers apprehend suspects in the case.

rCLWithout that you have 17, 18, 19 year olds with guns out here on these streets,rCY Johnson said. rCLThe difference is you have 5 individuals in custody.rCY

How the misuse was detected
SPDrCOs automatic audit-assist tool flagged 127 of the departmentrCOs approximately 39,000 Flock searches this year. Officers manually
reviewed every flagged alert, which led to the identification of
potential misuse by the six staff members. SPD deemed 34 of those
searches unjustified.

rCLThey manually went through every single alert, and it came to the
potential misuse by those six staff members,rCY Gunther said.

The audit-assist tool uses 10 items to generate red flags, including
high search volume and manual plate lookups.

Savannah Police Department
What comes next
City Manager Jay Melder acknowledged the damage to public trust.

rCLIt doesnrCOt help that conversation when members of our team breach that public trust, whether itrCOs a big breach or a small knucklehead breach,rCY Melder said.

Johnson said the benefits of the technology outweigh the actions of a
few.

rCLGiven the sheer numbers of this, the benefit to the technology,
leveraging the technology, far outweigh the few individuals who did not
make the right choices,rCY Johnson said.

Chief Gunther said he is working to add a formal policy governing Flock
camera usage. The audit-assist tool will also conduct weekly inspections
going forward to identify potential misuse earlier.

The names and positions of each employee involved have not been
released. The outside organization that received unauthorized access to
an SPD Flock account has also not been identified.

https://www.wtoc.com/2026/08/03/savannah-mayor-police-chief-respond-alleg ed-misuse-flock-license-plate-reader/
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