The Gwinnett County Police Department uses Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology, including Flock Safety cameras, to support criminal investigations and enhance public safety.
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Automated License Plate Recognition - FAQ
Flock cameras are a specific brand of license plate reader (LPR) camera that are currently utilized by the Gwinnett County Police Department (GCPD). Flock cameras are designed to capture images of rear license plates as vehicles pass by them. They are not designed to capture images of pedestrians or other non-vehicle traffic and are not utilized to do so. The cameras used by GCPD do not have any live feed or live viewing capabilities.
Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 35-1-22, law enforcement agencies may use license plate reader cameras to capture license plate data, but they may do so only for law enforcement purposes, such as the investigation of criminal offenses. Thus, Flock cameras are only used by GCPD for the investigation of criminal activity.
When a vehicle passes a Flock camera, if it is stolen or associated with a crime, wanted person, or missing person, officers are alerted to the vehicle and its location. Also, if a crime occurs in the area, if a suspect vehicle passed a camera, officers are able to search for images of that vehicle.
Of the over 1,100 Flock cameras located in Gwinnett County, GCPD currently owns 199.
The Gwinnett County Police Department can only share the data captured by the cameras operated by the department with other law enforcement agencies. Data captured by cameras owned by other entities, such as various private businesses, HOAs, and other organizations cannot be shared by GCPD.
No. While GCPD can share data with other law enforcement agencies to support cross-jurisdictional investigations, all data is under the control of GCPD. The only exception to this is that the State of Georgia requires data captured by Flock cameras installed on state routes to be shared with the Georgia State Patrol.
GCPD owns the data and the data cannot be sold to third parties. This is not only a provision of GCPD's contract with Flock; it is pursuant to Georgia law. O.C.G.A. § 35-1-22 only allows law enforcement agencies to exchange or share captured license plate data with other law enforcement agencies and they may only do so for law enforcement purposes. Any request for, use of, or attempt to obtain GCPD's captured license plate data for any purpose other than for a law enforcement purpose is a criminal offense.
While Georgia law allows license plate images to be kept for up to 30 months, Flock only retains license plate images for 30 days. After 30 days, the images are deleted and/or are no longer accessible. The only Flock images retained for more than 30 days are those that are being retained for evidentiary purposes for criminal investigations and prosecutions. These retained images are transferred to GCPD's evidence system.
All GCPD personnel who are authorized to utilize the Flock system are trained on its use in accordance with Georgia law and GCPD directives. They receive initial training during their academy training at the Gwinnett County Police Training Center and receive continued training thereafter on an annual basis. In order to utilize the Flock system, personnel must be investigating a criminal offense and must provide a case number, call number, or signal of the incident they are investigating. All use of the Flock system is tracked and subject to regular auditing.
Our department training specifically instructs our personnel that while Flock cameras may be used as an investigative tool, images captured by and alerts provided by Flock do not amount to probable cause, and officers cannot stop vehicles based on Flock alerts or searches alone. They are instructed that they must verify what Flock is displaying through NCIC / GCIC and develop probable cause based on NCIC / GCIC information and their own observations as police officers.
The department has an LPR Administrator whose job it is to conduct training on the use of the Flock system and to conduct weekly audits to ensure compliance with LPR training and policy, as well as the requirements of Georgia law.
No. Flock cameras are not utilized for speed enforcement.
No. While the cameras are not designed to capture images of pedestrians and other individuals, if a person walked in front of a Flock camera, an image would be obtained. However, because Flock cameras are only designed to capture images of license plates, Flock does not utilize facial recognition software against those images. Flock cameras are intended to capture license plate data, not images of individual people.