Have You Been Flocked?
In 2025, the AADM raised concerns about Athens-Clarke County’s use of Flock license plate readers and the bigger questions surrounding privacy, access, misuse, and oversight.
Those concerns are no longer hypothetical.
Former Athens-Clarke County Police Department Criminal Intelligence Analyst Supervisor Nick Barker was fired after an internal investigation found that he improperly used the Flock system to search his ex-wife’s license plate numerous times over several months in 2025. ACCPD policy prohibits use of the system for personal or non-law-enforcement purposes. The matter was also referred for an independent criminal investigation.
Then, on September 11, the University of Georgia announced that a civilian UGAPD IT employee was suspended without pay for 20 business days and demoted after an audit discovered unauthorized use of the Flock database. UGA said the employee accessed the system twice in 2025 for incidents in which he had a personal interest, even though he did not have authorization from his supervisor to conduct those searches. UGA’s investigation determined the conduct was not criminal.
Now you can check whether your own license plate appears in some publicly obtained Flock audit records.
A website called Have I Been Flocked? allows you to enter your license plate number and search Flock audit logs obtained through public-records requests.
If your plate appears, it does not automatically mean you were suspected of a crime. It means your tag appeared in a Flock search record contained in the public data currently available to the website.
If nothing appears, that also does not mean your vehicle has never been captured or searched. The database is incomplete.
Check your tag. Check your spouse’s. Share the link with your family and friends. If you have been flocked
Then ask the bigger questions:
Who searched your plate? Why was it searched? Who has access to this system? And who is making sure that access is not being abused?
These recent Athens cases show exactly why privacy, transparency, auditing, and accountability matter.
You can also search public Flock records through USA TODAY:
Search the USA TODAY Flock database
And if you want to dig deeper into Athens records:
