A supervisor at the Conyers Police Department’s Real‑Time Crime Center has been yanked off duty and is facing a criminal charge after an internal audit flagged allegedly personal snooping through Flock Safety license‑plate reader data to track a domestic partner, according to city officials.
The employee, identified as Paige Forte, was placed on administrative leave Thursday after suspicious queries surfaced during routine monitoring of the department’s Flock account. As reported by WSB‑TV, Conyers launched an internal review, then asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to handle the criminal side of the case while the department conducts its own probe.
Statewide Wave Of Camera Audits And Arrests
The Conyers flap is not happening in a vacuum. Across Georgia, agencies are running audits on Flock and other automated license‑plate reader systems, and the results have been ugly for some officers.
According to The Atlanta Journal‑Constitution, the GBI recently arrested five Albany officers after an internal audit flagged questionable use of plate‑reader data, and other departments around the state have announced similar probes and arrests in recent weeks.
“The integrity of our department depends on the public’s confidence that we use technology responsibly and within the law,” Conyers Police Chief Scott Freeman said in a statement. The department told WSB‑TV it moved quickly once the audit flagged activity that appeared to violate policy.
Georgia Law And Potential Penalties
Georgia law tightly restricts how agencies can use automated license‑plate reader data. O.C.G.A. §35‑1‑22 limits how long records can be kept, bars non‑law‑enforcement use, and sets criminal penalties for improper access.
Those rules are not just for show. Local prosecutions have followed audit findings across the state. For example, CBS Atlanta reported that a Greene County deputy was arrested this month after an audit showed multiple personal searches using Flock cameras, and prosecutors in other jurisdictions have pursued cases tied to improper plate‑reader lookups.
Conyers officials say they will keep combing through access logs and tightening oversight while the GBI investigation plays out. For a deeper dive into how similar audits have unfolded elsewhere in Georgia, see Hoodline’s earlier look at the Greene County case in Greene County Cop Canned.
