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October 12, 2026 · Baldwin County, GA · Charged, not convicted

Two Georgia sheriff's office employees charged over alleged Flock searches with no law enforcement purpose

Two people who had worked for the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office in Georgia, a veteran training officer and a former road patrol deputy, were arrested on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026 over alleged misuse of the office's Flock plate-reader system without a justifiable reason or a case number, The Union-Recorder and WGXA reported. The Union-Recorder said each was charged with a felony count of violation of the oath of office and a misdemeanor count of misusing the Flock system. Both have been charged, not convicted. WGXA reported that the investigation began after an open records request from a news outlet in Port St. Lucie, Florida raised concerns about irregular use of Flock data; the sheriff's office got that information on Tuesday, Oct. 6, checked its own system, and fired both employees on Thursday, Oct. 8. Incident reports put one alleged offense in February and the other in June. The former deputy had since moved to the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office, which told WGXA it fired him when it learned of the charge; the sheriff said the alleged misuse happened while he worked in Baldwin County. Sheriff Bill Massee said only supervisors may now access Flock in his department. "We are extremely sorry that it happened. We've been constantly reviewing our Flock systems here to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.

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