Savannah Gave ICE No Flock Access. Records Show Its Agent Searched Anyway.

A Savannah police officer was fired after sharing her Flock camera-system login with her ICE agent husband, giving him access outside the department's approved sharing arrangements. ^[2][3]

Amber Harpe lost her job in August 2026 after an internal investigation. Her husband, Tyler Harpe, used her account to make 983 searches involving 97 license plates between January and July, according to records and recorded interviews obtained by WJCL. ^[3]

Savannah police say they do not share Flock credentials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yet a federal agent was able to search through a local officer's account. ICE has confirmed that it is investigating its agent's involvement. ^[2][3]

"Every name that I ever ran was an ICE target," Tyler Harpe said in an interview recorded by investigators. He said the searches helped locate people with arrest warrants after ICE had assembled information on its targets. ^[3]

The department's position is that an investigative purpose did not authorize the access. A city spokesperson said an outside law enforcement agency's reason for conducting an investigation does not, by itself, give it permission to use Savannah police technology. The spokesperson described unauthorized access as a breach of policy and public trust. ^[2]

One account, 983 searches

The searches involved plates from Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey and Maryland. Of the 983 searches, 788 involved South Carolina plates, roughly four out of five. Those figures describe the plates searched, not where the agent was sitting when he searched them. ^[3]

The 97 plates are also not a count of people arrested or located. They show the reach of the searches through Amber Harpe's account. WJCL reported that most of the registered vehicle owners identified in the records were Hispanic. That does not establish the reason for each search. ^[3]

Tyler Harpe defended the searches as work on ICE targets. ^[3]

Asked by an investigator whether she had run the searches, Amber Harpe answered, "I didn't," then confirmed that her husband had used her account. She said ICE agents did not have their own Flock access. ^[3]

That exchange puts the access problem in concrete terms. The account belonged to a Savannah officer, while someone working for another agency used it. A list of approved partner agencies would not, on its own, have shown who was actually behind those searches.

Savannah police said Harpe violated department policy. The department also said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation did not bring criminal charges against her. ^[2]

A sharing list cannot police a password

Flock's camera system lets law enforcement search vehicle information. Its access model, as the company describes it, puts local customers in charge of deciding who can search their data. Flock says it does not independently share customer data and that ICE has no direct access unless a local agency expressly grants it. ^[4]

Those are the company's stated rules, not an independent assessment of what happened in Savannah. Here, the route into the system was a local officer's login, according to the internal investigation described by WJCL. Savannah says that route broke its rules. ^[2][3][4]

WJCL reported that Savannah police shared Flock data with more than 1,700 agencies, based on department records listing its partners. ICE was not on that list. The department separately told WTOC that it shares credentials with other agencies but not ICE. ^[2][3]

The difference between those two facts is the heart of the case. ICE could be absent from the approved list while one of its agents still had a way in. A formal refusal to share data offers limited protection if an authorized user hands over an account.

Savannah now supplies a documented example of why control over approved connections and control over individual users must work together.

For a department overseeing access across more than 1,700 partner agencies, the practical question reaches beyond which organizations appear on a list. It also includes whether the person conducting a search is the person authorized to use the account. The Harpe investigation exposed a failure at that point. ^[2][3]

Discipline locally, investigation federally

Amber Harpe was one of six Savannah police employees fired following an internal investigation into Flock misuse. Four of those employees were later arrested. Harpe was not among those arrested, and her husband's use of her account should not be confused with the conduct behind the other employees' arrests. ^[1][3]

The findings of ICE's investigation, any separate determination of the legality of each search, the full scope of Tyler Harpe's access and any changes to Savannah's account controls have not been made public in the accounts cited here. ^[2][3]

Savannah has also promised a public transparency portal listing agencies with access to its Flock system. It had previously been expected by the end of September, but had not launched when WTOC reported on October 15. ^[2]

The next formal finding belongs to ICE, which says it is investigating its agent's involvement. Savannah's next promised public step is the access-list portal. ^[2]