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Two officers with the Greer Police Department (GPD) were fired last month after an internal audit uncovered monthslong abuse of the city’s Flock Safety camera system, according to separation papers provided by the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy (SCCJA).
Now two weeks later, a spokesperson for the S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED) tells FITSNews they’re “reviewing” allegations against at least one of those officers.
GPD, on the other hand, has offered no public acknowledgment of the widening scandal. Sources familiar with the agency attribute that silence to a culture of secrecy that, they say, has only intensified under Police Chief Matt Hamby, who has led the department since 2017.
“Transparency is the only solution,” echoed one of those sources. “And Greer is not transparent.”
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A CORPORAL, A SUBORDINATE AND A FLOCK AUDIT…
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According to records provided by the SCCJA, Greer’s pattern of Flock abuse first came to light through now-former Cpl. Kareem Lynch, 28, who allegedly misused the system to track a subordinate with whom he had a… “previous relationship.”
Police records further allege that Lynch — not even six years out of the academy — “repeatedly entered incorrect and deceitful” entries into Flock’s system to track the subordinate’s license plate.
Like any officer running a tag, Lynch had a wide range of options to choose from when telling Flock why he was searching. Records show that, for his unauthorized searches, he went with options like “city planning” and “welfare check” from at least December 2025 to January 2026.
“These incorrect and deceitful justifications created a false Flock report and public document,” his separation papers allege.
The same documents confirm he was terminated for reasons involving misconduct on June 26.
The following Monday, Sgt. Alexander Cooper filed the paperwork, noting procedurally that the ex-officer was neither under a pending criminal investigation nor facing any legal repercussions for abusing Flock, which apparently amounted to a mere policy violation.
That posture, however, was short-lived.
Twelve days after Lynch’s termination, GPD requested that state agents investigate “potential allegations” against the former corporal. A SLED spokesperson confirmed the referral last Friday, noting the agency was “reviewing the request” at that time.
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While details regarding the specific allegations remain unclear as of this publishing, it cannot be ignored that every source familiar with GPD has described the dynamic between Lynch and his now-former subordinate as strained, or, in the words of one colleague, “rocky.”
Multiple sources described a pattern in which Lynch would repeatedly turn up around the subordinate for “no apparent reason,” including at the scene of her service calls when he wasn’t even on shift.
“And in the last couple months,” the same colleague added, “she blocked him on all social media.”
With Lynch’s alleged behavior being such an open secret, it becomes increasingly difficult to argue GPD supervisors were unaware of the situation between him and the subordinate, and even more troubling to wonder what it took for Greer to finally audit his Flock searches.
Part of the answer, according to one source, lies in how rarely audits happen at GPD.
“Once guys are put on the road, admin generally doesn’t audit them unless there is a problem,” noted someone familiar with GPD. “This entire pattern speaks to a consistent issue with Greer.”
Whatever the case, it appears as though another officer was caught in the process.
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FIVE MONTHS OF FALSE ENTRIES…
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Just three days after Lynch was stripped of his law enforcement certification, a second GPD officer suffered the same fate.
According to records provided by the SCCJA, Sebastian Echeverry, 29, was stripped of his law enforcement certification on June 29 after it was determined he searched the tags of “several citizens” and likewise covered his searches with “deceitful and false” entries.
Unlike Lynch, whose searches allegedly centered on one person over about two months, separation papers allege Echeverry’s misconduct spanned more than five months, from Dec. 13, 2025, to May 25, 2026, with “Alcohol Offense Non-DUI” serving as his go-to justification.
As for how this was even discovered, one officer volunteered to FITSNews that Echeverry, too, may have searched the license plate of Lynch’s subordinate, but at Lynch’s direction, and possibly without knowing whose tag it even was.
Someone familiar with Greer reaffirmed this possibility, noting that it’s not uncommon — under what’s known as the “collective knowledge doctrine” — for officers to ask one another to run a search on their behalf without independently verifying the requester’s stated reason.
As for the bulk of Echeverry’s searches, sources suggest he wasn’t acting out of malice but rather cutting corners with Flock. From Greer’s end, sources say, his go-to offense is one of the first options in Flock’s system, which Echeverry appears to have used almost exclusively.
Still, at least one of Echeverry’s unauthorized searches allegedly targeted his ex-girlfriend.
“As someone familiar with Greer,” continued a source, “these guys would have been given access to Flock without any real formal training… But ignorance of the law does not excuse breaking the law. Or in this case, a policy violation.”
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Despite the magnitude of the allegations against both former officers — Lynch especially — their alleged misconduct pales in comparison to a much bigger story playing out well beyond Greer or the two upstate counties the department straddles.
Across the nation, civilians are expressing growing concern over the rapid expansion of Flock, which since its launch in 2017 has become law enforcement’s premier choice in automated license plate readers, now boasting a presence in 49 states and thousands of cities.
Utilizing AI algorithms to capture large volumes of data from every vehicle and person caught in the crosshairs of a Flock camera, that cache is swept into a vast and unregulated surveillance network where it’s thereafter stored and accessible to law enforcement everywhere.
Some Americans have evidently taken umbrage with this newfound arrangement, as made evident by a growing number of law enforcement agencies across the Carolinas reporting damage to, or the outright destruction of, Flock cameras in their area.
While a former officer tells FITSNews the relatively new surveillance system is an “invaluable” investigative tool, they still concur with the very civilians they now walk among, agreeing that the distrust surrounding these cameras is warranted.
They conceded the technology is intimidating, and that the cameras are expanding faster than those charged with handling them can build guardrails, or better yet, be transparent when this immensely powerful technology is abused… as is the alleged case in Greer.
“Officers are leaving law enforcement because it’s becoming an increasingly video-backed police state,” the former officer told FITSNews. “This is too much access to too much information that removes the old school police work.”
As for GPD, sources familiar with the department say the story doesn’t end here.
For now, though, Lynch remains listed as a corporal on the agency’s website.
Write to Andy Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy Award–winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. He joined FITSNews in 2023 after leaving an NBC affiliate, where he served as on-air talent. His reporting focuses on public corruption in South Carolina, with an emphasis on law enforcement misconduct and abuse of power.