Greer, S.C. police officer searched Flock cameras to track his ex-girlfriend and other citizens, falsified justifications

On July 14, 2026, the Greer Police Department in Greer, South Carolina disclosed that it had terminated Officer Sebastian Echeverry for misusing the department's Flock Safety automatic license-plate-reader cameras. City Administrator Andrew Merriman said Flock Safety's AI Audit Assistance tool — which reviews an entire department's use of the platform — flagged Echeverry's searches after initial allegations, and that the audit "corroborated the initial information."

Separation records released by the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy show Echeverry, an officer with the department since 2020, searched the plates of several citizens between December 13, 2025 and May 25, 2026, entering "Alcohol Offense Non-DUI" as his justification even though that was not the true reason for the searches; at least one of his searches targeted his ex-girlfriend. Echeverry's Flock entries were found to be false, in violation of a department policy — in place since January 2023 — that restricts the system to "public safety related missions of the agency."

Echeverry was terminated June 29, 2026, three days after a fellow officer, Kareem Lynch, was separately terminated for unrelated misuse of the same system. Echeverry's termination was reported to the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, which will determine the status of his law-enforcement certification. Greer PD attributed the discovery to the Flock audit tool rather than to routine internal review; the department does not otherwise audit officers' system use absent a specific complaint. As of this writing (2026-08-15), no SLED review or other investigative referral has been publicly reported specific to Echeverry, unlike the referral made regarding Lynch's conduct.