LOGANVILLE, Ga. — Sept. 11, 2026 — The arrest and firing of three Gwinnett County police officers accused of misusing Flock license-plate-reader information is drawing renewed attention to the technology’s presence in Loganville and the safeguards governing its use.

A review of the DeFlock crowdsourced camera map shows 13 automated license-plate-reader locations within Loganville’s city limits.

That number should not be considered an official inventory of cameras owned or operated by the City of Loganville. DeFlock says its database is compiled through volunteer reports and OpenStreetMap data, meaning locations can be added, removed or reclassified. However, the map provides a picture of how extensively plate-reading technology has become part of Loganville’s public-safety landscape.

Flock cameras photograph passing vehicles and record information including license-plate numbers, vehicle descriptions, locations and times. Law-enforcement agencies can search that information when investigating crimes, locating stolen vehicles or looking for vehicles connected to missing and endangered people.

For Loganville residents, the cameras can provide police with leads within minutes instead of requiring investigators to manually review hours of conventional surveillance video. At the same time, the searchable record of where vehicles have traveled has raised concerns about privacy, access and the potential for misuse.

Those concerns gained new urgency after the Gwinnett County Police Department announced Sept. 9 that three officers had been fired and charged following separate investigations involving alleged misuse of license-plate-reader information.

According to Gwinnett police, former officer Renee Downer was arrested in May and charged with simple battery and stalking. Former officer Derric Holmes faces six counts of misuse of license-plate data, while former officer Matthew Lau faces one count.

The investigations remain active, and Gwinnett police said additional charges are possible. The charges are allegations, and the former officers are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Although Gwinnett County’s investigation occurred just west of Loganville, local officials say no similar misuse has been discovered within the City of Loganville or Walton County.

Loganville Police Chief M.D. Lowry and Walton County Sheriff Keith Brooks recently told residents attending a TRIAD meeting that their agencies have implemented safeguards intended to prevent unauthorized access.

Local searches must be connected to a specific case, and regular audits are conducted to review use of the system. Loganville and Walton County have also reduced the standard retention period for camera data to seven days. Information may be retained longer when it is needed as evidence in a particular investigation.

That local seven-day limit is more restrictive than Gwinnett County’s newly adopted 15-day retention period.

Gwinnett police said the department strengthened its rules after gaining access in June to an expanded Flock auditing system capable of providing greater scrutiny of officers’ search activity.

Under Gwinnett’s revised procedures, an officer requesting a search must give the justification to a direct supervisor. The supervisor must evaluate the request and, when appropriate, conduct the search. Officers are also undergoing additional training, and Gwinnett reduced its data-retention period from 30 days to 15 days.

Gwinnett Police Chief J.D. McClure said the department understands the public expects close oversight of who can access the system and how it is used. He said misuse will not be tolerated, while maintaining that Flock remains an important tool for solving violent crimes and locating people in danger.

Gwinnett police said license-plate-reader alerts have assisted investigations involving homicides, shootings, child abductions, stolen vehicles and missing or endangered people, including individuals with dementia.

The Gwinnett cases do not establish that Loganville’s cameras have been misused. They do, however, demonstrate why audit trails, limited access, short retention periods and case-specific searches are important wherever the technology is deployed.

For Loganville, the issue is no longer whether license-plate readers are present. With 13 locations currently appearing on a public camera map, the larger question is how the technology is supervised—and whether residents can be confident that a useful crime-fighting system will remain restricted to legitimate public-safety purposes.