GoKawiilDespite an eightfold increase in the number of cameras integrated into the city’s Connect Atlanta surveillance program, crime clearance rates have not meaningfully increased, according to data collected by the FBI.
Surveillance camera installed at the intersection off Mitchell Street and Elliott Street in downtown Atlanta, near Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (John Arthur Brown for ACPC)
When Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr wrote an opinion piece on the importance of police surveillance technology like license plate readers, he included an entire section under the heading, “How LPRs have helped law enforcement solve crimes.”
But does the vast network of surveillance equipment really help solve crimes? An in-depth review of FBI data across a range of crime types suggests that this infrastructure has not corresponded with an increase in the Atlanta Police Department’s (APD) clearance rates.
Since Flock Safety’s launch in 2017, its black-boxed license plate reader cameras on black poles with a solar panel atop have become ubiquitous across the country, including here in Atlanta, where the company is headquartered. Flock’s software platform boasts a nationwide lookup feature, allowing police officers to search over 80,000 cameras—both license plate readers and traditional cameras—with the click of a few buttons.
Increased scrutiny over Flock cameras arose in May 2025, when 404 Media revealed the nationwide lookup feature had been repeatedly used to search for immigration enforcement. Locally, ACPC found evidence that APD also conducted immigration-related searches in the months following President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. The department denies the assertion.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr speaks during a news conference at the Georgia Department of Public Safety in Atlanta on Sept. 5, 2023. (Natrice Miller/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
These cameras, surveillance technology officials and policy makers say, play a vital role in solving crime. In 2024, Flock claimed that “one additional Flock Safety License Plate Recognition (LPR) camera per sworn officer correlates with a 9.1% increase in clearance rate,” and that “20 additional Flock customers within 50 kilometers of the original agency leads to a 1% increase in clearance rates.”
According to the FBI, an offense is cleared by arrest or solved for crime reporting purposes. Police can also clear cases by exceptional means, including the identified alleged offender’s death, a victim refusing to cooperate or prosecutors declining to pursue the case. The clearance data was pulled from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, a tool, the bureau says is intended to increase police accountability by providing greater access to law enforcement data. The clearance numbers in this story are based on the quantity of reported crimes and clearances. Clearances in this data set do not necessarily happen in the same month or year as the underlying reported offense.
The company and APD have both been silent on the exact number of Flock cameras in Metro Atlanta; however, DeFlock.org, which has a crowdsourced map of surveillance cameras, shows over 5,000 Flock cameras in the area. APD has an authorized strength of 2,000 sworn officers, though it currently employs around 1,800.
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