Flock in Appling County: Source Documents

The requester to the Sheriff / records office
Original request body; requester-identifying information redacted

To the Open Records Officer / Custodian of Records:

Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-70 et seq., I request electronic copies of the following existing records maintained by or on behalf of the Appling County Sheriff’s Office concerning automated license plate reader or license plate recognition technology (“ALPR/LPR”), including Flock Safety/Flock Group systems.

Date range: January 1, 2023 through the date of this request.

This request seeks:

1. Vendor solicitation and acquisition records, including proposals, quotes and quotations, estimates, bids, sales proposals, order forms, purchase orders, contracts, agreements, statements of work, amendments, addenda, renewal documents, and cancellation or termination documents.

2. Invoices and payment-related records maintained by the Sheriff’s Office, including vendor invoices, receipts, payment requests, purchase requisitions, documentation identifying the account or funding source from which an ALPR/LPR expenditure was to be paid, and records reflecting recurring subscription, service, maintenance, connectivity, hosting, or licensing costs.

3. Funding records, including existing records identifying whether ALPR/LPR equipment or services were funded in whole or in part through county appropriations, Sheriff’s Office funds, state or federal grants, asset forfeiture funds, donations, private funding, intergovernmental funding, or any other funding source. This includes grant applications, grant awards, reimbursement requests, award notices, or other existing records specifically concerning funding for ALPR/LPR equipment or services.

4. Approval and authorization records, including existing records reflecting approval or authorization to acquire, purchase, lease, subscribe to, install, deploy, or renew ALPR/LPR equipment or services.

5. Installation and deployment records, including installation work orders, deployment records, installation completion records, records identifying the number of ALPR/LPR units acquired or deployed, records identifying installation or activation dates, and permits, approvals, applications, or correspondence with the Georgia Department of Transportation concerning installation of ALPR/LPR equipment.

6. Vendor agreements governing the service or data, including terms of service, master service agreements, data ownership provisions, data retention provisions, data-sharing provisions, agency-access agreements, network or nationwide-search participation agreements, and agreements permitting another governmental entity to access Appling County Sheriff’s Office ALPR/LPR data or permitting the Sheriff’s Office to access another entity’s ALPR/LPR data.

7. Records sufficient to identify the ALPR/LPR system currently operated or available for use by the Appling County Sheriff’s Office, including vendor, product or service, number of units, original acquisition or activation date, current contract or subscription term, and current recurring cost.

For purposes of identifying responsive records, relevant terms may include, but are not limited to: “ALPR,” “LPR,” “automated license plate reader,” “automatic license plate reader,” “automated license plate recognition,” “license plate reader,” “license plate recognition,” “Flock,” “Flock Safety,” and “Flock Group.”

This request seeks existing records only and does not request that the Sheriff’s Office create a new report, compilation, or analysis.

FORMAT AND COST

Electronic copies are preferred in their native electronic format where practicable. There is no need to print records that already exist electronically.

If responsive records are already organized by vendor, contract, purchase order, invoice, grant, or similar file structure, please produce those existing records rather than conducting a broader search than necessary.

If fulfilling this request is expected to result in charges, please provide a written itemized estimate before incurring costs exceeding $25.00, identifying the anticipated search, retrieval, redaction, or production work and the hourly rate to be charged.

If narrowing or clarifying a particular portion of this request would materially reduce the anticipated cost, please identify that portion before undertaking substantial search or retrieval work so that I may consider narrowing it.

If any responsive record or portion of a record is withheld or redacted, please identify the specific statutory authority, including Code section, subsection, and paragraph, relied upon for the withholding or redaction, and produce all reasonably segregable non-exempt portions.

If responsive records are maintained by a private vendor or other entity on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office, please include those records to the extent they constitute public records under Georgia law.

If no responsive records exist for a particular numbered category above, please state that no responsive records were located for that category.

Thank you,
[requester name redacted]

The requester to the Sheriff / records office
Original request body; requester-identifying information redacted

To the Open Records Officer / Custodian of Records:

Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-70 et seq., I request electronic copies of existing policies, procedures, rules, directives, training materials, and governance records maintained by or on behalf of the Appling County Sheriff’s Office concerning automated license plate reader or license plate recognition technology (“ALPR/LPR”), including Flock Safety/Flock Group systems.

For policies and similar governance documents, this request seeks the current version and any prior or superseded version maintained by the agency that was in effect at any time from January 1, 2023 through the date of this request.

In particular, please include any policy, procedure, general order, directive, or other written governance document that was in effect when the Appling County Sheriff’s Office first began operating or using ALPR/LPR technology, if such a record exists.

Specifically, I request:

1. ALPR/LPR policies and procedures, including any policies; standard operating procedures (SOPs); general orders; special orders; directives; rules; written protocols; manuals; or written instructions governing ALPR/LPR use.

2. Authorized-use rules, including existing records addressing permissible purposes for ALPR/LPR searches; prohibited uses; requirements to establish or document a law-enforcement purpose; restrictions on personal or non-law-enforcement use; investigative-use requirements; and approval required before conducting particular types of searches.

3. User access and account controls, including policies or procedures governing who may access the ALPR/LPR system; creation or approval of user accounts; user permission levels; account termination; authentication requirements; supervisory access; and access by persons outside the Appling County Sheriff’s Office.

4. Search and query procedures, including policies, procedures, or instructions concerning plate-number searches; vehicle searches; location or geographic searches; historical searches; investigative queries; search justification or reason codes; documentation of search purposes; and restrictions governing searches involving persons who are not suspects in criminal investigations.

5. Hot lists, watch lists, alerts, and notifications, including policies or procedures governing entry of vehicles or license plates into hot lists or watch lists; criteria required for entry; approval requirements; expiration or removal; alert recipients; response to an ALPR/LPR alert; verification of an alert before enforcement action; and documentation associated with alerts.

6. Data retention and deletion, including policies or procedures establishing retention periods; automatic deletion periods; preservation of data for investigations; extension of retention periods; downloading or exporting ALPR/LPR data; and destruction or deletion of exported data.

7. Data sharing and external access, including policies, procedures, or agreements governing sharing ALPR/LPR data with another law-enforcement agency; sharing with federal, state, local, or out-of-state agencies; access through regional, statewide, or nationwide ALPR networks; requests from other agencies; approval of external agency access; revocation of shared access; and restrictions on redisclosure.

8. Audit, accountability, and supervisory review, including policies or procedures concerning logging of user activity; search or query audit logs; periodic audits; supervisory review; compliance reviews; detection of unauthorized use; investigation of suspected misuse; and documentation or reporting of policy violations.

9. Training requirements and materials, including ALPR/LPR training policies; training presentations; training manuals; written training materials; vendor-provided training materials maintained by the Sheriff’s Office; user certification requirements; written acknowledgments required before receiving access; and refresher-training requirements.

10. Misuse and disciplinary provisions, including policies, procedures, directives, or written rules addressing unauthorized searches; personal use; improper disclosure; unauthorized sharing; credential sharing; policy violations; and suspension or revocation of ALPR/LPR access.

11. Vendor-provided governance requirements maintained or used by the Sheriff’s Office, including acceptable-use policies; user agreements; agency agreements; search-use requirements; privacy or data-use rules; data-sharing controls; audit requirements; and other vendor rules Sheriff’s Office personnel are expected or required to follow when using the ALPR/LPR system.

12. Records reflecting adoption or revision of ALPR/LPR governance, including existing approval pages; effective-date pages; revision histories; policy-change notices; directives implementing or modifying ALPR/LPR procedures; and records identifying the effective date of a current or superseded ALPR/LPR policy.

13. Records sufficient to establish the governance timeline, specifically the effective date of the first written ALPR/LPR policy, procedure, general order, directive, or equivalent governance document; any subsequent effective or revision dates; and any existing record identifying when ALPR/LPR users were first required to acknowledge, receive training on, or comply with such policies.

For purposes of identifying responsive records, relevant terms may include, but are not limited to: “ALPR,” “LPR,” “automated license plate reader,” “automatic license plate reader,” “automated license plate recognition,” “license plate reader,” “license plate recognition,” “Flock,” “Flock Safety,” and “Flock Group.”

This request seeks existing records only. It does not request that the Sheriff’s Office create a policy, report, explanation, summary, compilation, or analysis that does not presently exist.

If ALPR/LPR operation is governed wholly or partly by a broader Sheriff’s Office policy—for example, a criminal-intelligence, investigative-database, information-security, records-retention, data-sharing, surveillance-technology, or law-enforcement-database policy—please produce the responsive existing policy or responsive portions thereof.

FORMAT AND COST

Electronic copies are preferred in their native electronic format where practicable. There is no need to print records that already exist electronically.

If fulfilling this request is expected to result in charges, please provide a written itemized estimate before incurring costs exceeding $25.00, identifying the anticipated search, retrieval, redaction, or production work and the hourly rate to be charged.

If narrowing or clarifying a particular portion of this request would materially reduce the anticipated cost, please identify that portion before undertaking substantial search or retrieval work so that I may consider narrowing it.

If any responsive record or portion of a record is withheld or redacted, please identify the specific statutory authority, including Code section, subsection, and paragraph, relied upon for the withholding or redaction, and produce all reasonably segregable non-exempt portions.

If responsive governance records are maintained by a private vendor on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office or are vendor-created records received and maintained by the Sheriff’s Office in connection with operation of the system, please include those responsive records to the extent they constitute public records under Georgia law.

If no responsive records exist for a particular numbered category above, please state that no responsive records were located for that category.

Thank you,
[requester name redacted]

Sheriff’s Office Open Records to the requester
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

We have received the attached request and we are working on providing you with all available information.

Thank You!

Sheriff’s Office Open Records to the requester
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

[requester name redacted],

Please find attached a copy of the FLOCK policy.

In response to your request:

1. This would be covered by the copy of our FLOCK Policy
2. This would also be covered by the copy of our Flock Policy
3. N/A this is determined by the flock admin staff on who has access to our system.
4. See policy.
5. N/A
6. Retention is set by the FLOCK system, original retention is only 30 days and via updates is being changed to 7 days unless the information is tagged for evidence and would be on a case by case basis.
7. N/A
8. N/A we have had no suspected or known misuse or policy violations to date. Periodic review of Flock is done Monthly by an administrator.
9. Training was conducted by webinar for staff by FLOCK staff. I do not have the dates and times on this.
10. See Policy, also we have had no misuse to date
11. N/A
12. N/A
13. N/A
If you have any further questions or concerns, you can contact our office.
Thank You!
Appling County Sheriff’s Office
912-367-8120

Sheriff’s Office Open Records to the requester
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

Please find attached the FLOCK policy. The one sent in the previous response did not have both sides of that policy.

The requester to the Sheriff / records office
Selected excerpts: opening and access-controls paragraph; other text omitted. Editorial correction: the original email says eight people; the newspaper says nine. Requester-identifying information redacted here; original message retained privately.

Open Records Officer,

I have now had time to carefully compare my two August 19 Flock/ALPR requests with the Sheriff’s Office’s August 20 acknowledgment, the August 25 response, the policy that was first sent, and the corrected two-page policy that followed.

After doing that comparison, there are several things I need the Sheriff’s Office to clear up and several portions of the original requests that still appear to be unresolved.

For reference, I sent two separate requests on August 19:

[Intervening text omitted; access-controls paragraph follows]

The response says access is determined by “flock admin staff.” The News-Banner article separately attributes to Sheriff Melton a written policy concerning who may enter information into the system and reports that eight people were then authorized, with that number being reduced by two.

Sheriff’s Office Open Records to the requester
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

Originally I, the Open Records Custodian, had not received Request 1 about “ALPR / Flock Acquisition, Procurement, and Implementation Records”.

This request has now been received and I will work on providing that information to you; as well as working on addressing your concerns with Request 2 “ALPR / Flock Policies, Procedures, Training, and Governance”.

The requester to the Sheriff / records office
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

Open Records Officer,

I am following up regarding my two August 19, 2026 Georgia Open Records Act requests concerning the Appling County Sheriff’s Office’s Flock/ALPR system and my August 31, 2026 Deficiency Notice and Request for Completion.

On August 31, you responded:

“Originally I, the Open Records Custodian, had not received Request 1 about ‘ALPR / Flock Acquisition, Procurement, and Implementation Records’.

This request has now been received and I will work on providing that information to you; as well as working on addressing your concerns with Request 2 ‘ALPR / Flock Policies, Procedures, Training, and Governance’.”

I appreciate that acknowledgment. However, I have received no subsequent production, production schedule, fee estimate, exemption notice, or other disposition of the outstanding portions of either request.

O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(b)(1)(A) requires responsive records to be produced within three business days after receipt where they are available. Where responsive records exist but are not available for production within three business days, the Act requires the agency, within that period, to provide a description of the records and a timeline for when they will be available, and thereafter to provide the records or access to them as soon as practicable.

Request 1 was expressly acknowledged as received by the Open Records Custodian on August 31. Your same response expressly stated that the Sheriff’s Office would work on addressing the outstanding matters concerning Request 2.

Fourteen calendar days have now elapsed since that acknowledgment. I have received neither the outstanding responsive records nor a description and production timeline for responsive records that could not be produced within the statutory period.

My August 31 correspondence already identified in detail what remained unresolved under both requests. I will not repeat those categories here. This follow-up does not expand, modify, replace, or restart either original request or my August 31 deficiency/completion notice.

Please complete the outstanding response in accordance with the Georgia Open Records Act.

For each outstanding category, please either produce the responsive existing records; clearly state that no responsive records were located; identify or describe responsive records that require additional production time and provide the applicable production timeline; or, for any records or portions of records being withheld, identify the specific statutory authority supporting the withholding.

My prior authorization for charges up to $25.00 remains unchanged.

If the estimated cost of fulfilling either request exceeds $25.00, please provide the written estimate required by O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(d) before undertaking chargeable work exceeding that authorization.

Any such estimate should clearly identify the statutory basis for the charges and provide sufficient itemization for me to determine how the estimate was calculated, including, as applicable, the estimated administrative time, hourly rate used, applicable no-charge period, copying or production charges, and any other component included in the estimated total. If charges are attributed to search, retrieval, redaction, copying, or other administrative work, please identify the applicable statutory basis for those charges.

I am not authorizing charges exceeding $25.00 unless and until I receive and approve the required estimate.

Electronic production remains preferred in native electronic format where practicable.

Please treat this correspondence solely as a request for completion of the two existing August 19 requests and the outstanding matters identified in my August 31 correspondence. It is not a new Open Records Act request and does not reset the dates associated with the existing requests.

Thank you,

[requester name redacted]

Sheriff’s Office Open Records to the requester
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

[requester name redacted],

Please find the attached documents as a revised response to your request “ALPR/Flock Policies, Training, Governance”. I have also attached our Policies and Procedures Cover Page, Index, and Policy Statement #28.

Please note for any additional information regarding the webinars, those records are maintained by FLOCK and you can request dates and times through them; our office does not maintain those records.

Thank You!

The requester to the Sheriff / records office
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

Open Records Officer,

I am following up on the September 15, 2026 revised response to my August 19 request, “ALPR / Flock Policies, Procedures, Training, and Governance.”

Your revised response materially clarified one point: ACSO states that “We did not have a policy set in place until July 28, 2026. There were no prior policies before this date in regards to the FLOCK Cameras.” I will preserve that as ACSO’s representation concerning the absence of a prior Flock-specific policy. It does not, however, establish when the Flock system first became operational or when ACSO first began using it.

That distinction matters. My existing requests seek records sufficient to establish the governance and implementation timeline, including when the system was acquired, installed, activated, accessed, searched, used for alerts, or otherwise placed into operational use. Please produce the existing responsive records that establish the earliest operational/activation date. If no such records are maintained by ACSO, please state that clearly. This is a request for completion of the existing August 19 requests, not a new request.

I also need to address the statement in your September 15 email that webinar records “are maintained by FLOCK” and that I can request dates and times through Flock because ACSO does not maintain those records.

That does not resolve the existing request. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(a)(2)(B) expressly requires a custodian responding to an Open Records Act request to retrieve qualifying public records prepared and maintained or received by a private person or private entity in the performance of a service or function for or on behalf of the agency. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(h) further requires an agency that contracts with a private vendor to collect or maintain public records to ensure that the arrangement does not limit public access or permit the vendor to impede access.

Accordingly, please do not direct me to submit a separate request to Flock Safety for qualifying records maintained by Flock for or on behalf of ACSO. Please retrieve and produce those responsive records through ACSO’s response.

This applies not merely to webinar dates and times, but to qualifying existing records within the scope of the August 19 governance request that are maintained by Flock for or on behalf of ACSO, including, as applicable, training/course and completion records; account, role, permission, access-control and account-change records; retention configuration and change records; alert/watch-list procedures or configuration records; sharing/network-participation and access-revocation records; and audit/review logs, reports, or related records.

I am not requesting Flock Safety’s unrelated proprietary or internal corporate records, nor am I asking ACSO to create a new report or compilation.

For each remaining category, please produce the responsive records; state clearly that no responsive records were located after the required search and retrieval, including qualifying contractor-held records; provide the applicable production timeline if responsive records exist but are not yet available; or identify the specific statutory authority for any withholding.

The existing $25.00 authorization remains unchanged. If ACSO will seek costs exceeding $25.00, please provide the estimate required by O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(d) before undertaking chargeable work beyond that authorization.

Thank you,

[requester name redacted]

The requester to the Sheriff / records office
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

Open Records Officer,

I am writing separately to address the still-outstanding August 19, 2026 request titled “ALPR / Flock Acquisition, Procurement, and Implementation Records.”

On August 31, 2026, you expressly stated that you had not originally received this request, that it had then been received, and that you would work on providing the requested information. My September 14 follow-up again identified Request 1 as outstanding.

The September 15 production expressly identified itself as a revised response to the separate “ALPR/Flock Policies, Training, Governance” request. I have located no substantive production, no-record determination, exemption notice, fee estimate, or production schedule disposing of the acquisition/procurement/implementation request.

Please complete Request 1.

That request contains seven existing-record categories concerning the acquisition and implementation of the Flock system, including vendor acquisition records; invoices and recurring costs; funding source(s); approval and authorization records; installation/deployment records; vendor, service, subscription, and data agreements; and records sufficient to identify the system, number of units, acquisition or activation dates, current contract/subscription term, and recurring cost.

The operational timeline is now particularly material because ACSO’s September 15 revised governance response states that no Flock-camera policy existed before July 28, 2026. That statement establishes ACSO’s position concerning its policy history; it does not establish when the system was first installed, activated, accessed, or used. The acquisition/implementation records should establish that timeline without requiring ACSO to create a new narrative.

O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(b)(1)(A) requires responsive records to be produced within a reasonable time not exceeding three business days after receipt when available. Where responsive records exist but are unavailable within that period, the agency must provide a description of the records and a timeline for availability within the statutory response period, and then provide the records or access as soon as practicable.

Please provide a complete disposition of each of the seven categories: produce the responsive existing records; state clearly where no responsive records were located; identify responsive records that remain to be produced and provide the production timeline; or identify the specific statutory authority for any withholding.

My authorization for charges up to $25.00 remains unchanged. If ACSO will seek costs exceeding $25.00, please provide the written estimate required by O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(d) before undertaking chargeable work beyond that authorization. The estimate should identify the statutory basis for the charges and provide sufficient itemization to show how the total was calculated, including, as applicable, estimated administrative time, hourly rate, the no-charge first quarter hour, copying or production charges, and any other component of the estimate.

I am not authorizing charges exceeding $25.00 unless and until I receive and approve that estimate.

This correspondence seeks completion of the existing August 19 request. It does not expand, replace, or restart that request.

Thank you,

[requester name redacted]

Sheriff’s Office Open Records to the requester
Message body; requester-identifying information redacted; quoted prior messages omitted

We have not finished gathering information for this request, we will send back a response once all 7 categories have been completed.