Reporter stopped after filming installer
Police in Milton, Georgia, stopped an investigative reporter after a worker installing a Flock Safety automated license-plate reader called authorities and said he was being followed. The August 19 encounter, documented through dispatch recordings, police body-camera video and the reporter’s own footage, lasted about 17 minutes and ended without an arrest or citation.
InvestigateTV reporter Brendan Keefe went to a public street outside Atlanta after learning that a Flock camera was being upgraded. He parked at a distance, wore clothing identifying him with an Atlanta television affiliate, displayed a press placard and recorded the installer. When the worker packed up and drove away, Keefe followed several cars behind, hoping to document the next installation.
The installer called police, describing the filming as harassment and reporting that Keefe’s vehicle was following him. After the call was transferred between jurisdictions, a Milton officer stopped Keefe and two more police vehicles arrived. Keefe explained that he was a journalist documenting Flock’s cameras. In body-camera footage described by InvestigateTV, the officer told a supervisor that Keefe had followed the worker but was not close enough to appear to be chasing or stalking him.
The officer said the installer was worried that being identified could expose him or his family to unwanted attention. Keefe challenged the privacy concern because the work was taking place on a public street and involved technology that records passing vehicles. Officers eventually returned to their cars and allowed him to leave.
Company cites worker safety
Flock told InvestigateTV that it does not object to members of the press or public photographing its cameras or personnel in public. The company added that field workers are instructed to put safety first and may contact law enforcement when they believe they face threats, harassment or unwanted following. The statement did not allege that Keefe broke a law.
The episode occurred amid broader criticism of Flock’s network and questions about how police agencies use plate-reader data. InvestigateTV reported that the company operates roughly 120,000 readers nationally. Communities in several regions have ended contracts, while lawmakers have considered restrictions or bans. Flock has said its growth still substantially exceeds cancellations. Those competing developments suggest that scrutiny has increased without halting adoption.
It was also the second reported Georgia incident during the summer in which a person working for Flock called police about people recording company operations. In June, officers responded after online video creators filmed outside a Flock distribution center in Smyrna. A recording of that emergency call captured the employee invoking the company’s relationship with law enforcement while requesting assistance.
The Milton stop did not settle the larger legal and policy questions surrounding automated plate readers. It did, however, expose a sharp tension: workers operating surveillance equipment in public may themselves feel vulnerable when recorded, while journalists and residents argue that documenting public infrastructure is essential to oversight. Any assessment of the stop must distinguish the installer’s stated safety concern from a finding of unlawful conduct, which the responding officers did not make.
