Cherokee County, Ga. Lt. Chris Bryant arrested on felony charge for misusing sheriff's office license-plate reader database

On June 22, 2026, Cherokee County, Georgia Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Chris Bryant, 45, of Acworth, was arrested, booked into the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center, and fired after an internal audit found he had used the agency's Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) system — built on Flock Safety technology — for purposes unrelated to law enforcement. Bryant was charged with one felony count of violation of oath of office and one misdemeanor count, of a high and aggravated nature, for unlawfully retaining license plate reader data, both under Georgia law. He was held on a $3,812 bond.

The arrest stemmed from a self-initiated audit by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office Real-Time Intelligence Division of its ALPR system, undertaken to check compliance with agency policy and state law. The audit identified three authorized users, including Bryant, who had queried the database outside legitimate law-enforcement need — access Georgia law restricts to official use because the system logs the location, time, and photograph of every vehicle that passes its cameras, effectively recording where a driver goes.

Sheriff Frank Reynolds confirmed the findings publicly, saying the office's employees are expected to "use the tools entrusted to us only for legitimate law enforcement purposes." The sheriff's office has not disclosed the specific reason Bryant queried the system or whose plate data he searched. Sergeant Mike Creeden was arrested and fired the same day over a separate violation identified in the same audit, and Deputy Cynthia Jodesty had been arrested on June 12 after the audit found she ran a co-worker's plate through the system without a legitimate purpose.

Following the arrests, the sheriff's office said it updated its ALPR policy, adding mandatory user certification, audits at least twice a year, and tighter access controls.