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Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

Covington, Georgia: a police detective is fired and charged after an internal review finds he searched a co-worker's plate 41 times on the Flock license-plate-reader system; USA TODAY's analysis of Flock logs counts 2,890 searches from June 2023

A Covington Police Department internal review, obtained by USA TODAY, found that a detective had searched the license plate of a woman he used to date, a Covington police employee, 41 times on the Flock license-plate-reader system since January 2026, after Flock's audit tool flagged his activity in July. He also searched the plates of her new boyfriend and of a second former partner. USA TODAY's analysis of audit logs found 2,890 searches of the woman's plate from June 2023 to October 2025, nearly every day for 14 months. The woman told USA TODAY she had suspected a tracking device on her car because he showed up unannounced and seemed to know where she had been, and that she was scared when told the full number in early August. The department fired the detective and referred him to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which arrested him on 26 August 2026 and charged him with misuse of a license plate reader system and violation of oath.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
Jun 2023
Reported
27 August 2026
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbusePsychological Distress
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Justice · Work · Relationships
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts
6 claims: 1 documented, 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 3 people

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader system used by the Covington Police Department, which the detective searched through his police access; its Audit Assistance feature flagged his activity (USA TODAY; GBI news release)

What Happened

USA TODAY's investigation of Flock Safety license-plate-reader audit logs (28 August 2026) describes the Covington case as one of the first in Georgia caught by Flock's Audit Assistance feature, which flagged a detective's excessive Flock activity in July 2026. A Covington Police Department internal review, which USA TODAY obtained through a public records request, found that the detective had used Flock to search the license plate of a woman he used to date, who also works for Covington police, 41 times since January 2026, and that he had also searched the plates of her new boyfriend, another Covington detective, and of a second former dating partner. The department fired him and referred him to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. USA TODAY's own analysis of publicly released audit logs found that he searched the first woman's plate 2,890 times from June 2023 to October 2025, nearly every day for 14 months and as many as 41 times in one day, usually between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. The woman, who declined to be named, told USA TODAY she had suspected he had planted a tracking device on her vehicle: he repeatedly showed up unannounced and seemed to know every place she had been, and she once saw him parked in his police cruiser outside a restaurant where she was eating late at night with friends. When a USA TODAY reporter called her in early August and told her the number of searches, she said she was in shock and scared. The GBI says the Covington Police Department asked it on 6 August 2026 to investigate misuse of the department's Flock Safety system, that preliminary information indicates the officer accessed the system for non-law enforcement purposes, and that it arrested him on 26 August 2026 and charged him with misuse of a license plate reader system and one count of violation of oath of office. USA TODAY reports the charges as five counts of violation of oath by a public officer and other offenses, filed on 27 August.

Reported harm

According to USA TODAY's analysis of Flock audit logs and a police internal review, a detective searched the car plate of a co-worker he used to date thousands of times over more than two years; she told USA TODAY she had suspected she was being tracked and was scared when told the extent. He is charged with misuse of a license plate reader system.

Outcome

Pending

Flock's Audit Assistance feature flagged the detective's activity in July 2026 and the Covington Police Department opened an internal review; the department fired him and on 6 August 2026 asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate. The GBI says it arrested him on 26 August 2026 and charged him with misuse of a license plate reader system and one count of violation of oath of office; USA TODAY reports he was charged on 27 August with five counts of violation of oath by a public officer and other offenses. He had not entered a plea at the time of USA TODAY's report. No court outcome is reported in the sources read.

What remains unknown

  • The number of violation-of-oath counts: the GBI release says one, USA TODAY says five.
  • Whether the searches continued between October 2025 and January 2026, and when they stopped.
  • Whether the new boyfriend or the second former partner has described any effect of the searches.
  • The court handling the charges and any outcome.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. USA TODAY and the GBI say the detective searched the woman's plate on the Covington Police Department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader system, and USA TODAY says Flock's Audit Assistance feature flagged his activity. The plate-read records about the woman's car were the system's output; the searches are recorded as the detective's own acts. The sources do not describe the readers as AI.

6 claims: 1 documented, 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A Covington Police Department internal review found that the detective used Flock to search the license plate of a woman he used to date, who also works for Covington police, 41 times since January 2026, and also searched the plates of her new boyfriend, another Covington detective, and of a second former dating partner; Flock's Audit Assistance feature flagged his activity in July 2026.

Causal attribution. USA TODAY's account of the internal review; the review itself was not inspected.

  • usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'he had tracked a female co-worker 41 times since January, an internal affairs report shows'; 'a woman he used to date, who also works for Covington police'; 'also searched the tags of that woman’s new boyfriend'; 'and a second ex-dating partner'
Reported USA TODAY's analysis of publicly released Flock audit logs found that the detective searched the woman's plate 2,890 times from June 2023 to October 2025, nearly every day for 14 months and as many as 41 times in one day, usually between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Causal attribution. USA TODAY's own analysis of the audit logs; not independently replicated.

  • usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'license plate 2,890 times from June 2023 to October 2025'; 'nearly every day for 14 months straight'; 'as many as 41 times in one day, usually between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.'
Reported The woman told USA TODAY she had suspected a tracking device on her vehicle because he repeatedly showed up unannounced and seemed to know every place she had been, and that when told the number of searches in early August she was in shock and scared.

Causal attribution. The woman's own account to USA TODAY; she was not named.

  • usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'planted a tracking device on her vehicle'; 'He repeatedly showed up unannounced, she said, and seemed to know every place she had been'; 'she said she was in shock'; 'I’m really scared'
Reported The Covington Police Department fired the detective and asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on 6 August 2026 to investigate misuse of its Flock Safety system; the GBI says preliminary information indicates he accessed the system for non-law enforcement purposes.

Causal attribution. The firing is reported by USA TODAY; the referral date and preliminary finding are the GBI's statement. Not a court finding.

  • usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'referring him to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for an independent criminal investigation'
  • wsbtv.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'has been fired and arrested after an internal audit uncovered'; 'the Covington Police Department notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation of its findings'
  • gbi.georgia.gov(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'requested the GBI to investigate allegations of misuse of the Covington Police Department Flock Safety System'; 'accessed the Flock Safety System for non-law enforcement purposes'
Documented The GBI says it arrested the former officer on 26 August 2026 and charged him with misuse of a license plate reader system and one count of violation of oath of office.

Causal attribution. The arresting agency's own release documents the arrest and charges; the allegations are unproven.

  • gbi.georgia.gov(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'with Misuse of a License Plate Reader System and one count of Violation of Oath of Office'; 'was arrested on August 26, 2026, and was booked into the Newton County Jail'
Reported USA TODAY reports that he was charged on 27 August 2026 with five counts of violation of oath by a public officer and other offenses and had not entered a plea.

Causal attribution. USA TODAY's account; the count differs from the GBI release (one count of violation of oath), and no charging document was inspected.

  • usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'with five counts of violation of oath by a public officer and other offenses'; 'He has not entered a plea.'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-04 from the eu.usatoday.com edition of the same article (28 August 2026). Rests on a Covington police internal review obtained by public records request, USA TODAY's own analysis of audit logs and an interview with the woman. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live). The release names the officer and charges and does not describe the woman or the number of searches. Applies to s2.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 from an Internet Archive capture of 28 August 2026 (the live site answered 451 to this host). Relays the police department and GBI; does not describe the woman. Applies to s3.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.

The detective served with the Covington Police Department in Newton County, Georgia, and the woman is a Covington police employee (USA TODAY). The GBI arrested him in Covington and booked him into the Newton County Jail; the charges are Georgia charges.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-04: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional privacy and safety case, consistent with the held Flock officer-misuse rows: USA TODAY reports a police internal review and its own audit-log analysis showing a Covington detective searched a co-worker's plate thousands of times, with her account of the effect, and the GBI release documents his arrest and charges. The automated readers generated the plate-read records; the misuse is recorded as a human act. Neither the detective nor the woman is named here.

People described

A woman who works for the Covington Police Department and had previously dated the detective (not named here); the detective also searched the plates of her new boyfriend, another Covington detective, and of a second former partner

People reported harmed in this case

At least 3 people

0 AI participants · 3 other people harmed

The internal review, as reported by USA TODAY, says the detective searched the plates of the woman he used to date, her new boyfriend and a second former dating partner: three people. Only the first woman's search count and reported effects are described. documented_minimum 3; other plates the logs may contain are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#flock#alpr#license-plate-reader#police-misuse#former-partner#co-worker#georgia#covington#newton-county

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Covington, Georgia: a police detective is fired and charged after an internal review finds he searched a co-worker's plate 41 times on the Flock license-plate-reader system; USA TODAY's analysis of Flock logs counts 2,890 searches from June 2023. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2023-covington-georgia-police-detective-flock-alpr-tracked-co-worker-fired

BibTeX

@misc{2023_covington_georgia_police_detective_flock_alpr_tracked_co_worker_fired,
  title = {Covington, Georgia: a police detective is fired and charged after an internal review finds he searched a co-worker's plate 41 times on the Flock license-plate-reader system; USA TODAY's analysis of Flock logs counts 2,890 searches from June 2023},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2023-covington-georgia-police-detective-flock-alpr-tracked-co-worker-fired}
}

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