|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
***
One of the Upstate’s largest cities has temporarily suspended its Flock Safety license plate reader system, just weeks after FITSNews exclusively reported that two of its officers had been abusing their access to the third-party platform for months.
In an abrupt announcement last Friday (August 21, 2026), the City of Greer confirmed a 90-day suspension of its Flock system, effective immediately. The city further noted that staff access to the system had been cut – and that every camera within its municipality had been “physically covered.”
City administrator Andrew Merriman added that the city is using the hiatus to conduct a “data-driven analysis” of Flock’s effectiveness and, ultimately, weigh its mounting privacy concerns against whatever benefit the AI-driven technology actually provides.
“Public trust and public safety are of paramount importance in the City of Greer,” Merriman said in part.
Within minutes of the about-face, city councilman Mark Hopper not only echoed the administrator’s sentiments, but reiterated the public’s growing concern over the technology — citing what he described as a “great deal of research and reflection” on the matter.
“Public safety is a primary role of government,” Hopper wrote on Facebook, ”But not at the expense of transparency, public trust and rights granted by the Creator and enshrined in the Constitution.”
Hopper affirmed that he fully supports the city’s temporary suspension of Flock.
***
RELATED | TWO GREER POLICE OFFICERS TERMINATED FOR ABUSING FLOCK
***
Greer’s swift decision comes in the wake of widespread backlash triggered by an exclusive FITSNews report confirming that two of the city’s officers had been abusing Flock to track private citizens, including their ex-lovers.
The officers involved, Cpl. Kareem Lynch, 28, and Officer Sebastian Echeverry, 29, were stripped of their law enforcement certifications and fired for reasons involving misconduct in late June.
But neither the public nor select members of city government were made aware of their terminations until after FITSNews reported it, triggering a ripple effect of similar disclosures of Flock abuse at law enforcement agencies across the Palmetto State.
Transparency is not contagious, though...
Following Greer, FITSNews almost immediately broke that Ellie Hammond, 24, an officer with the neighboring Mauldin Police Department, had used Flock to look up her ex-lover nearly 170 times. Like her disgraced counterparts, Hammond used Flock to run false and fraudulent searches that went undetected for months.
With stories like those involving Lynch, Echeverry and Hammond becoming more frequent, it’s no surprise the public has grown increasingly skeptical of Flock’s expanding footprint.
Members of that same public have evidently grown displeased with the state’s nascent support of this third-party tech, prompting an uptick in various sorts of vandalism against Flock cameras.
***
RELATED | MAULDIN POLICE OFFICER USED FLOCK TO TRACK EX-LOVER 166 TIMES
***
Whether as a result of that unrest or simply in line with a broader shift in sentiment, Oconee County took things a step further, becoming one of, if not the first, South Carolina counties to advance a blanket defund of the ever-controversial Flock Safety camera system.
Titled the “Protection from Mass Surveillance Ordinance,” the measure cleared its first reading last week. Its chief sponsor is Oconee County Council Chairman Matthew Durham, who’s framing the push as a constitutional issue rather than a debate over the technology itself.
Such pushes are not without resistance, though.
The South Carolina Sheriffs’ Association affirmed an entirely different posture earlier this month. The group stated that all 46 of the state’s sheriffs support technology like Flock, and that “isolated misconduct” should never be mistaken as “evidence” of improper technology.
Flock, for its part, made a so-called attempt to curb the backlash this month — announcing modest changes such as cutting default data retention from 30 days to seven. That safeguard, however, can still be overridden.
Write to Andrew Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
***
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.
***
SOUND OFF…
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
