LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga. – The Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office is offering a $1,000 reward for information after someone destroyed a Flock Safety camera near Yahoola Creek Park. Sheriff Stacy Jarrard said the license plate reader was being used as a public safety tool, including to help alert authorities when registered sex offenders entered the park. "I hope you're happy with this, it was to keep our kids safe," Jarrard said in a Facebook reel Monday. "That's what this is about, and you went and done this." Jarrard said the damaged equipment will be replaced and that the new camera will have video capabilities that could help identify anyone who tries to tamper with it. The incident comes as Flock's expanding network of license plate readers faces increasing scrutiny over privacy and how law enforcement agencies use the data. Police say the technology helps investigators locate stolen vehicles, identify suspects and solve crimes. These concerns were reflected in the responses to the sheriff's social media post. More than 17,000 comments have been left on the post, many of them reflecting the public's concern over the potential usage of the Flock system to monitor law-abiding citizens. The concerns are not hypothetical in Georgia. In July, the GBI arrested five former Albany police officers after investigators said an internal audit found they accessed Flock's system and used retained license plate information for non-law-enforcement purposes. The GBI also arrested a former…
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