Metro police on alert for Halloween Flock vandalism amid more misuse claims

Metro Atlanta agencies are on alert amid the spread of online posts urging people to vandalize Flock Safety cameras on Halloween, a social media push that comes as the technology company continues to draw criticism and more officers face misuse allegations.

The viral campaign calls for people to cover, disable or damage Flock cameras across the nation on Halloween. In response, Cobb County police plan to increase patrols on and around the holiday and other departments are discouraging participation.

It’s unclear whether there is an organization behind the online push, but some social media posts urge people to participate while in costume. The posts originate from various accounts — many anonymous — across Reddit, Meta, Instagram and X.

The cameras have drawn intense scrutiny from critics, who say they retain large amounts of data, enable mass surveillance and are ripe for abuse. Supporters, including many law enforcement leaders, say they help solve and deter crime by, for example, allowing police to track a criminal’s movements.

Dozens of Georgia officers have resigned, been terminated, placed on leave or criminally charged after allegedly accessing Flock’s sprawling network of tag readers for unauthorized purposes. In the latest case, 42-year-old Justin Brown, a former Hall County Sheriff’s Office investigator, was fired from the agency in August after an internal investigation, officials said.

On Wednesday, he was charged with two counts each of misuse of a license plate reader system and violation of oath of office, the GBI announced following its investigation. The sheriff’s office previously said Brown searched at least two tag numbers “for personal intentions,” and the GBI confirmed he accessed Flock Safety’s system for non-law enforcement purposes.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s attempts to reach Brown were unsuccessful, and the sheriff’s office declined to comment on the charges brought by the GBI.

Sheriff’s office spokesperson B.J. Williams did, though, comment on the Halloween rumors. He said Thursday via email the agency’s patrol division and property crimes unit had not determined if there were any “organized plans locally” to vandalize or damage cameras on Oct. 31.

Williams said if cameras do get damaged, individuals could face criminal charges, such as felony interference with government property, felony second-degree criminal damage to property or misdemeanor criminal trespass.

Flock Safety declined to comment on the online posts calling for Halloween vandalism.

Paris Lewbel, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based company, previously told the AJC that Flock would continue to invest in safeguards to help agencies detect misuse and hold users accountable.

“From Day 1, Flock has had detailed audit logs that give agencies visibility into how the system is being used, including every search, who conducted it, and what was searched,” Lewbel said.