Four former Savannah Police Department (SPD) employees were arrested by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) for misusing Flock Safety's database on Friday.
According to GBI, Marquis Dillard, 48, of Savannah, Donald Phillips, 23, of Fleming, and Matthew Rich, 39, of Savannah, were charged with two counts of misuse of a license plate reader (LPR) system and one count of violation of oath of office. Each were employed as SPD officers at the time of their arrest. Calandic Thomas, 34, of Pooler, was with two counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. He was employed as a community service specialist at SPD.
Dillard, Phillips, Rich, and Thomas were booked into the Chatham County Jail.
The arrests come weeks after six SPD employees were
fired from the law enforcement agency following Flock misuse allegations arose, accusing the employees of searching personal acquaintances and family members.
Until Friday, the employees' names were kept secret pending the results of the GBI investigation. Who the other two employees are is currently unknown to the public.
On July 29, SPD requested the GBI to look into claims of misuse after an internal audit of the Flock Safety System suggested the six employees used the database for non-law enforcement purposes.
SPD released a statement around 6 p.m. on Friday, noting that Chief Lenny Gunther is disappointed in the officer's actions.
"We understand that community trust must be earned and kept. There is no excuse for breaking that trust," he said. "The actions of a few do not reflect the dedication and professionalism of the men and women who honorably serve our community every day."
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who is a staunch supporter of the use of Flock cameras, said in the press release that, "accountability should not depend on your identity, uniform, or position. We entrusted these individuals with advanced technology — and even more importantly — with the public’s trust."
SPD's use of Flock cameras
SPD operates 103 Flock LPR’s throughout the City. From January to late-July, the system has over 1.4 million hits. A hit is generated when an LPR capture's a vehicle’s license plate number and cross references it with a law enforcement database.
During the same period, 39,590 additional searches were made in the Flock system by SPD personnel.
A monthly internal audit of Flock flagged 127 irregular searches made in the system, and four officers and two civilian staff members were identified as potentially misusing the technology.
“Let this be a clear statement to everybody in our organization: improper misuse of any government tool that breaches public trust will be dealt with severely,” Savannah City Manager Jay Melder said at an early-August press conference.
Gunther and Assistant Chief Robert Gavin said at the press conference that approximately 300 SPD employees have access to the Flock database.
SPD team members access the system using personalized login credentials and two-step authentication. Gavin said the system logs who accesses the database, date, time and the device used to log in, but it does not track a user’s physical location when they access the system.
Each search requires the user to enter a reason, and searches that do not align with established patterns can be flagged for review.
Since the potential misuse was identified, SPD said it will increase audits from monthly to weekly and be conducted by the Office of Professional Standards.
Ansley Franco is a reporter with the Savannah Morning News, covering public safety and general assignments. You can reach her at AFranco@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Four ex-Savannah police employees arrested in Flock database misuse
