Tyler Murkerson sued Flock Safety and the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, alleging that deputies used automated license plate reader (ALPR) searches and monitoring against him while his earlier excessive-force lawsuit was pending. Flock disputes the claims and says it intends to defend itself in court. In reporting published October 14, Cyrus Farivar of Ars Technica described a complaint dated October 8 that makes those allegations.
What Murkerson alleges
The complaint alleges that deputies searched Murkerson’s vehicle multiple times and followed or monitored him during the earlier lawsuit. According to Ars Technica’s account, the complaint says the only justifications entered for searches of his vehicle were “info” and “37.”
The complaint also alleges that Flock’s earlier free-text field accepted entries without requiring a case number. As an example, it cites another police department entering “hehehe” on 20 occasions; those entries were not attributed to Coweta County.
The earlier case and a county audit
Ars Technica reported that deputies arrested Murkerson in February 2023 over an alleged seat-belt violation and that the charges were later dropped. Murkerson sued the sheriff’s department in September 2024, alleging excessive force; that case was later settled. The complaint’s reported allegation is that the searches and monitoring occurred while that earlier lawsuit was pending.
Ars Technica also reported that the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office began an audit of its Flock system in August 2026. The complaint reportedly said three employees had resigned before the audit was completed.
Flock’s announced search controls
In an August 13, 2026 announcement, Flock said it would require case codes for law-enforcement searches by the end of 2026. Emergency searches could bypass that requirement, but would be flagged for administrator review. The company also said it would require law-enforcement customers to adopt Audit Assistance by year-end and introduce proactive lockouts when activity meets its criteria for abnormal behavior, pending administrator review. These are measures Flock announced; the company’s post does not say they were in place in Coweta County. Flock’s announcement also sets seven days as its recommended and default ALPR data-retention period, while saying existing customers keep their current retention periods.
