Roswell State Sen. John Albers is pushing for state-level oversight of license plate reader cameras as two U.S. senators demand federal guidelines following at least 19 Georgia law enforcement arrests for misusing the technology in 2026.

Albers, a Republican who chairs the Georgia Senate's Public Safety Committee, announced in late August that he is working with the Georgia Sheriffs' Association and the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police on a task force to address misuse of automated license plate readers, known as ALPRs. The effort now runs parallel to a bipartisan federal push.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican, sent a letter Tuesday, Sept. 22, to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, as reported by the Georgia Recorder. The letter urges the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue guidelines for state and local law enforcement use of ALPRs and to disclose how much federal funding has gone toward purchasing the systems.

The letter also asks the DOJ to disclose what grant oversight and accountability mechanisms it has in place and whether the agency has policies on the collection, storage and access to ALPR data.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, at least 19 people working in law enforcement or emergency services have been arrested and charged in 2026 for violating a state law that restricts ALPR use to official purposes. At least 30 of the documented misuse cases nationally involve officers stalking current, former or prospective romantic partners, according to the senators' letter as reported by The Center Square.

At a Wednesday, Sept. 23, press conference, Warnock said 140,000 law enforcement officers across the country have access to license plate tracking data. "The technology can't be trusted to manage itself … And right now there are no guardrails at all," he said, according to the Georgia Recorder.

The letter landed two days before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism was scheduled to hold a Thursday, Sept. 24, hearing on Flock Safety's surveillance network. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said he invited the CEOs of Flock and other ALPR firms to testify, though none appeared on the witness list as of Tuesday, according to The Hill.

Roswell residents have a direct stake in the debate. The Roswell Police Department pays $237,500 per year for its Flock ALPR contract, which expires Dec. 10, 2028. According to the city's open forum recap from Aug. 31, Flock cameras have contributed to nearly 1,000 RPD investigations since 2023 and nearly 500 in 2026 alone. The city council had no plans as of Aug. 31 to place the Flock program on a future agenda for public discussion or a vote.

Georgia has the highest density of Flock cameras in the nation. Crowdsourced mapping projects show more than 5,000 cameras operating in metro Atlanta, according to Atlanta News First.

Atlanta-based Flock Safety has taken its own steps. CEO Garrett Langley announced in mid-August that the company would reduce its recommended default data retention period from 30 to seven days, automatically suspend users who appear to be misusing the system and require officers to input a case number when searching the database. The Georgia Recorder reported that neither the DOJ nor Flock Safety responded to requests for comment on the senators' letter.

"We have to be smart, we have to be balanced and we have to be thoughtful as we work together to both have both short and long-term solutions," Albers said at an Aug. 26 press conference at the state Capitol, as reported by the Georgia Recorder. He wrote in an August op-ed that "backing the blue does not mean 'writing a blank check' for government surveillance." Albers said he was unsure whether legislation would emerge from the task force but left open the possibility of pursuing a fix in the 2027 legislative session.