Echols County, Georgia sheriff's office secretary arrested, charged with stalking after misusing Flock database to track two people she knew

On Monday, January 5, 2026, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Anna Altobello, 33, then a secretary at the Echols County Sheriff's Office in Statenville, Georgia, and booked her into the Lowndes County Jail on warrants out of Echols County. The arrest followed a request Sheriff Randy Courson made to the GBI on December 18, 2025, after he received information that Altobello had accessed the department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader account for a non-law-enforcement purpose on multiple occasions. Courson gave investigators the names of two people he believed she had searched for.

The GBI's investigation found that Altobello had searched for license-plate and tag information on those two people, both of whom she knew personally, on multiple occasions. She was charged with eight counts of misuse of license plate data (a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature), one misdemeanor count of stalking, one misdemeanor count of stalking - family violence, and one felony count of violation of oath of office. The GBI said the investigation remained active and that additional charges were expected once further requested documents were received; the case was set to go to the Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for review.

Sheriff Courson told a local television station the misuse was "unfortunately a rare case" of the department's two-camera Flock system "being used improperly," and said his office was adding policies aimed at preventing a recurrence. The GBI publicly announced the arrest on January 7, 2026, two days after it occurred.