Georgia man sues Flock, sheriff's office over alleged ALPR-fueled retaliation

A Georgia small-business owner has taken his fight with local law enforcement and Flock to court, saying license plate cameras were used to retaliate against him. Tyler Murkerson sued the company and the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, according to attorneys from Hall & Lampros, who say the case involves “illegal” searches carried out over many months without probable cause and without any link to a specific investigation.

The complaint also targets the way those searches were logged. The lawyers say Flock let officers use free-text entries instead of forcing them to attach a case number or some other specific investigation, which in their view made it easier to hide improper surveillance. That’s the kind of detail that turns a privacy complaint into a systems complaint: not just who looked, but how the tool was built to be used.

Murkerson’s conflict with the sheriff’s office goes back to February 2023, when deputies arrested him over an alleged seatbelt violation. Those charges were later dropped. Then, in September 2024, he sued the department over excessive force, and that case was only recently settled.

Now he’s widening the fight. The new suit ties the camera searches to that broader clash with the sheriff’s office, suggesting the surveillance wasn’t routine policing at all but part of a long grudge dressed up as database queries.