Deputy Used Police Spy Cameras to Track People He Knew — Now He’s in Jail

DeKalb County Sheriff’s Sergeant Kabiru Salawu, who had worked for the agency since 2009, was fired and arrested Saturday on a felony charge of violating his oath of office and a misdemeanor charge of misusing license plate data, after an internal investigation found he used the department’s Flock Safety camera network to track people he knew personally without any law enforcement justification [1, 2]. Salawu is being held without bond at the DeKalb County Jail [3]. Sheriff Melody Maddox said in a statement that “the public expects and deserves integrity from every member of this agency” and that misuse of surveillance technology or confidential information “will not be tolerated” [1]. The arrest is the latest in a string of similar cases in the Atlanta area, following the recent firing of three other Georgia officers in Henry and Fayetteville counties over alleged Flock camera misuse [4, 5].

Why It Sucks:

Privacy and Civil Liberties Advocates

• This is the surveillance overreach critics warned about. Advocates argue that a single deputy accessing a mass license-plate database to track people he knew personally proves that any officer with a login can turn a public-safety tool into a personal stalking tool [1, 2].
• It’s not an isolated department problem. Flock Safety cameras operate in networks spanning thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide, and advocates say a single rogue user in one county illustrates a structural risk that exists everywhere the technology is deployed [4].
• Internal firing isn’t the same as real oversight. Privacy groups note that three other Georgia officers were already fired for similar misuse before this arrest, suggesting the safeguards catching abuse are reactive rather than preventive [4, 5].

Law Enforcement Leadership and Police Unions

• Swift firing and arrest show accountability works. Sheriff Maddox’s public statement and the quick felony charge are held up as evidence the department takes misuse seriously and doesn’t shield its own [1].
• One bad actor isn’t an indictment of the technology. This view holds that license-plate readers remain a legitimate crime-solving tool, and punishing the individual who abused access is the right response rather than restricting the tool for everyone [1, 3].
• The tool still solves real crimes daily. Supporters argue that scrapping Flock networks over a handful of misuse cases would eliminate a resource used far more often for legitimate investigations than for abuse [4].

Residents Tracked Without Cause

• Victims may never learn they were surveilled. Because the misuse was discovered through an internal investigation rather than victim complaints, those tracked by Salawu have no guarantee they’ll ever be notified their movements were monitored [2, 3].
• No independent audit has been announced. Beyond the internal review that led to this arrest, there’s no indication of an outside audit examining how many other searches by other officers went unchecked [1].
• Trust erodes with each repeat case. With multiple Georgia officers now fired for the same type of misuse in recent months, residents say confidence that the technology is being used only for legitimate policing keeps taking hits [4, 5].

Sources & Citations:

[1] Atlanta News First: DeKalb County deputy fired, arrested for allegedly misusing license plate readers
[2] WSB-TV: DeKalb deputy fired, charged with misusing Flock cameras
[3] FOX 5 Atlanta: DeKalb deputy arrested for misuse of Flock tech
[4] AJC: Officers fired for alleged Flock camera misuse in DeKalb, Henry, Fayetteville
[5] Decaturish: DeKalb deputy accused of misusing Flock camera arrested