Second Habersham Deputy Fired, Arrested Over Flock Camera Misuse In A Month

A Habersham County Sheriff's deputy has been fired and arrested after investigators say he tapped into the department's Flock license plate reader system to track someone he had a personal relationship with, marking the second such case out of the same agency in under a month. Former deputy Jonathan Thomas faces a felony charge of violating his oath of office along with a misdemeanor charge of misusing license plate data, according to the Habersham County Sheriff's Office.

Thomas was fired and then arrested and booked into the Habersham County Detention Center, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. Sheriff Robin Krockum said the agency discovered Thomas's conduct during an ongoing audit of its Flock system, the same review process that led to the case against former deputy Christian Brewer just weeks earlier. Thomas had started with the sheriff's office on December 2, 2024, and an internal audit revealed his unauthorized access to license plate data tied to a person with whom he had a personal relationship. Officials have not revealed the identity of that person, and authorities have not confirmed the specific date the unauthorized access occurred.

A Second Case in Under a Month

Thomas's arrest comes barely three weeks after Habersham County fired and arrested Brewer, who had been with the department since May 2024 and faced identical felony oath-violation and misdemeanor data-misuse charges for allegedly using Flock cameras to track someone he had a personal relationship with. That earlier case, which Hoodline first reported in July, prompted the sheriff's office to strengthen its Flock camera policy. The agency now requires a two-person approval process for searches and has cut the number of approved system users from 39 down to 23 supervisors.

Under that tightened policy, every Flock license plate search now requires a documented case number, contact with the dispatch center by radio to log the search, and a supervisor who must document and approve the specific reason for that search. Krockum said the agency will continue auditing its system and holding accountable those who abuse it, and officials say the investigation into Thomas remains active and ongoing. The completed case file will be handed to the district attorney's office for review and prosecution.

Georgia's Statutes Behind the Charges

The felony charge against Thomas stems from Georgia Code § 16-10-1, which makes it a crime for any public officer to willfully and intentionally violate the terms of their sworn oath of office, carrying a penalty of one to five years in prison, according to Justia Law. Prosecutors must establish a direct connection between the prohibited conduct and the officer's official duties. The misdemeanor count falls under Georgia Code § 35-1-22, which restricts license plate reader data to legitimate law enforcement purposes and makes it a high and aggravated misdemeanor to knowingly obtain or use captured plate data under false pretenses, per The Local Alert. That statute traces back to House Bill 79, passed in 2018 to regulate automated license plate recognition systems statewide.

Part of a Statewide Reckoning

Habersham County's back-to-back arrests are unfolding alongside a wave of similar cases across Georgia. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested four former Savannah Police Department employees on August 22 after an internal audit found non-law enforcement use of the city's Flock system, with FOX 5 Atlanta reporting that Savannah police terminated all four before handing the case to state investigators. Earlier in August, three former Bibb County Sheriff's Office deputies were charged with stalking, unlawfully retaining license plate data, and violating their oath of office after an audit flagged unauthorized searches of personal acquaintances, according to CBS News. Hoodline covered that case in a piece on deputies charged in Flock stalking case. The GBI also arrested the former 911 director for the Dallas Police Department in Paulding County on August 12 over alleged misdemeanor misuse of Flock cameras between 2024 and 2025, after that department requested an independent inquiry.

By late July, internal audits and GBI investigations statewide had already resulted in more than 20 officers and personnel facing firings, resignations, or criminal charges tied to unauthorized Flock searches, per News 12 Augusta, with affected agencies spanning Cherokee, DeKalb, Coweta, Greene, Albany, and Habersham counties. Hoodline previously reported on staff departures at the Coweta County Sheriff's Office amid its own Flock audit in a story on employees quitting amid Flock audit. Atlanta-based Flock Safety, which operates more than 120,000 automated license plate reader cameras used by over 6,000 agencies across 49 states, estimates its network supported over 1 million criminal investigations in 2025, according to CBS Mornings.

Vendor and Lawmakers Respond

Facing backlash over the string of misuse cases, Flock Safety announced platform-wide changes this month, making audit assistance tools mandatory to flag abnormal search behavior, implementing automatic account lockouts, and cutting default data retention from 30 days down to seven, as detailed by The Current GA. Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley said the changes are meant to enforce guardrails and increase accountability for user agencies by January 2027. On Monday, Georgia State Senator John Albers announced a legislative proposal to create a state-level task force overseeing law enforcement use of Flock surveillance systems, according to WSB-TV. Albers said that while the technology supports public safety, oversight is necessary to protect civil liberties and rebuild public trust.