Perry, Georgia: a former police officer, by then a sheriff's school resource officer, is arrested; USA TODAY's analysis of Flock logs says she searched one plate more than 4,000 times and repeatedly searched co-workers' plates
USA TODAY's analysis of Flock Safety license-plate-reader audit logs found that an officer of the Perry Police Department in Georgia looked up a single license plate more than 4,000 times over 16 months. It was one of six plates she repeatedly searched; two were registered to cars owned by her co-workers and another belonged to her daughter's father. She left the department in April 2025 to become a school resource officer with the Houston County Sheriff's Office and kept searching from her Perry police-issued Flock account for at least four months afterwards, according to the logs. The Perry police chief told USA TODAY the department had not known how often she searched the plates before the newspaper asked. The sheriff's office suspended her without pay on 17 August 2026, and she was arrested two days later on charges of misusing a license plate reader system.
- AI system
- Flock Safety license plate readers
- Flock Safety
- Occurred
- Event date unknown
- Reported
- 28 August 2026
- Event location
- United States
- What the AI did
- Made a claim about the person
- Reported harm
- Exploitation or Abuse
- Whose AI use
- An institution’s AI use
- Setting
- Privacy · Justice · Work · Relationships
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources
- 5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
- People reported harmed
- At least 3 people
AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader system, searched through a Perry Police Department Flock account issued to the officer (USA TODAY analysis of audit logs)
What Happened
USA TODAY's investigation of Flock Safety license-plate-reader audit logs (28 August 2026) found that an officer used Flock to look up a single license plate more than 4,000 times over a 16-month span while employed by the Perry Police Department in Georgia. That plate was one of six she repeatedly searched; two were registered to cars owned by her co-workers and another belonged to her daughter's father. She left the Perry Police Department in April 2025 to work for the Houston County Sheriff's Office as a school resource officer at a local high school, and the audit logs show she continued making searches from her Perry police-issued Flock account for at least four months after she left. Perry Police Chief Alan Everidge told USA TODAY in a 19 August email, five days after a reporter contacted him, that the department had not been aware of how often she was searching the plates and had immediately begun reviewing her Flock activity. Houston County Sheriff Matt Moulton told USA TODAY that his office suspended her without pay on 17 August 2026; she was arrested two days later on charges of misusing a license plate reader system. She declined to comment, and no plea had been entered.
Reported harm
According to USA TODAY's analysis of Flock audit logs, a police officer repeatedly searched the car plates of two co-workers and her daughter's father, among six plates, including one plate more than 4,000 times over 16 months; she is charged with misusing a license plate reader system.
Outcome
PendingAfter USA TODAY contacted the Perry Police Department, its chief said the department began reviewing the officer's Flock activity. The Houston County Sheriff's Office, where she then worked as a school resource officer, suspended her without pay pending termination on 17 August 2026 after, it said, an internal audit found she had misused Flock license-plate-reader data, and referred the matter to the district attorney's office (41NBC). She was arrested two days later on charges of misusing a license plate reader system (USA TODAY). She declined to comment to USA TODAY, and no plea had been entered at the time of its report. No court outcome is reported in the sources read.
What remains unknown
- The start and end months of the 16-month span; the first search date is not stated.
- Whose plate was searched more than 4,000 times, and who owned the other plates.
- Whether any of the people whose plates were searched has described an effect on them.
- Which agency made the arrest, the exact charges, the court and any outcome.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. USA TODAY says the officer looked up the plates on the Flock license-plate-reader system through a Perry police-issued Flock account, as shown in audit logs. The plate-read records about the cars were the system's output; the searches are recorded as the officer's own acts. The sources do not describe the readers as AI.
5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported USA TODAY's analysis of Flock audit logs found that the officer looked up a single license plate more than 4,000 times over a 16-month span while employed by the Perry Police Department; it was one of six plates she repeatedly searched, two registered to cars owned by her co-workers and another belonging to her daughter's father.
Causal attribution. USA TODAY's own analysis of audit logs; not independently replicated.
- usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'to look up a single license plate more than 4,000 times over a 16-month span'; 'That was one of six license plates she repeatedly searched'; 'Two of them were registered to cars owned by her co-workers'; 'another belonged to her daughter’s father'
Reported She left the Perry Police Department in April 2025 to work for the Houston County Sheriff's Office as a school resource officer at a local high school and continued making searches from her Perry police-issued Flock account for at least four months after she left.
Causal attribution. USA TODAY's reading of the audit logs.
- usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'left the Perry Police Department in April 2025'; 'as a school resource officer at a local high school'; 'continued making searches from her Perry police-issued Flock account for at least four months after she left, audit logs show'
Reported The Perry police chief told USA TODAY in a 19 August 2026 email that, before the newspaper's inquiry, the department had not been aware of how often she was using Flock to search the plates, and that it had begun reviewing her Flock activity.
Causal attribution. The chief's statement as quoted by USA TODAY.
- usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Perry Police Department was not aware of the frequency with which'; 'After receiving your inquiry, we immediately began reviewing'
Reported The Houston County Sheriff's Office suspended her without pay, pending termination, on 17 August 2026 after an internal audit that it said found she had misused Flock license-plate-reader data, and referred the matter to the district attorney's office for prosecution.
Causal attribution. The sheriff's office statement, relayed by 41NBC and USA TODAY; both rest on the sheriff, so this is not independent corroboration.
- usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'suspended her without pay on Aug. 17'
- 41nbc.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'was suspended without pay Monday pending termination after the sheriff’s office said an internal audit found she misused Flock Safety license plate reader data'; 'referred the matter to the district attorney’s office for criminal prosecution'
Reported She was arrested on 19 August 2026 on charges of misusing a license plate reader system; no plea had been entered at the time of USA TODAY's report.
Causal attribution. USA TODAY's report; no charging document was inspected and the allegations are unproven.
- usatoday.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'She was arrested two days later on charges of misusing a license plate reader system.'; 'A plea has not been entered in her case.'
Sources
2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- USA TODAY, 28 August 2026: Our Flock camera investigation sparks police firings, arrests(opens in new tab)
s1 · usatoday.com · News report · English · Inspected · 28 August 2026 · Primary
- 41NBC News (WMGT), 17 August 2026: Houston County school resource officer suspended over Flock data misuse(opens in new tab)
s2 · 41nbc.com · Local tv news · English · Inspected · 17 August 2026
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 USA TODAY's own analysis of Flock audit logs and on statements from the Perry police chief and the Houston County sheriff. Applies to s1.
Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; 41NBC/WMGT, 17 August 2026). Relays the Houston County Sheriff's Office; does not mention the Perry searches or the people whose plates were searched. The suspension date in USA TODAY also comes from the sheriff, so the two are not independent on that point. Applies to s2.
Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.
The officer worked for the Perry Police Department and then the Houston County Sheriff's Office in Georgia (USA TODAY). The co-workers' residence is not stated; affected_person_countries US rests on their cars being searched on a Perry police Flock account and on the co-workers working with her in Georgia. The arrest and charges are in Georgia.
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's analysis of Flock audit logs shows a Perry, Georgia police officer repeatedly searched plates including two co-workers' cars and her daughter's father's, and she was suspended and arrested. The automated readers generated the plate-read records; the misuse is recorded as a human act. Neither the officer nor the people whose plates were searched is named here.
People described
People whose car plates the officer repeatedly searched, including two of her co-workers and her daughter's father (not named here)
People reported harmed in this case
At least 3 people
0 AI participants · 3 other people harmed
USA TODAY says the officer repeatedly searched six plates, of which two were registered to cars owned by her co-workers and one belonged to her daughter's father: three described people. The owners of the other three plates, including whether the plate searched more than 4,000 times is one of the three described, are not stated. documented_minimum 3.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Perry, Georgia: a former police officer, by then a sheriff's school resource officer, is arrested; USA TODAY's analysis of Flock logs says she searched one plate more than 4,000 times and repeatedly searched co-workers' plates. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-perry-georgia-police-officer-flock-alpr-repeated-plate-searches-co-workers-arrested
BibTeX
@misc{2025_perry_georgia_police_officer_flock_alpr_repeated_plate_searches_co_workers_arrested,
title = {Perry, Georgia: a former police officer, by then a sheriff's school resource officer, is arrested; USA TODAY's analysis of Flock logs says she searched one plate more than 4,000 times and repeatedly searched co-workers' plates},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-perry-georgia-police-officer-flock-alpr-repeated-plate-searches-co-workers-arrested}
} Related cases
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