Richmond County sheriff's deputy misused Flock database for 100+ personal searches; fired, charged

On July 20, 2026, the Richmond County (Augusta, Georgia) Sheriff's Office fired and arrested Deputy Joshua Johnson after a criminal investigation found he had misused the agency's Flock license-plate-reader system. Investigators determined Johnson made more than 100 unauthorized searches of the Flock database for reasons unrelated to any criminal investigation, call for service, intelligence gathering, or other legitimate law-enforcement activity. Johnson served as a patrol deputy. He was fired the same morning and turned himself in at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center, where he was charged with misuse of license plate readers and violation of oath of office.

The arrest grew out of the same Flock audit that led to the June 25, 2026 firing and arrest of former Deputy Jaquarius Yarbrough, who investigators said searched a woman's license plate 1,639 times to track her movements after their relationship ended. Reviewing records further after Yarbrough's arrest, investigators uncovered additional misuse by Johnson and by two other Richmond County Sheriff's Office employees, Lt. John McKenzie and Investigator Curtis Hoskins, fired and arrested the same morning for separately misusing the same system — recorded as their own entries, since each of the three independently ran his own unauthorized searches rather than acting together. The Sheriff's Office has not released the specific searches Johnson conducted or named the individuals targeted; multiple sources familiar with the investigation told The Augusta Press that some of the unauthorized searches across the three officers allegedly involved tracking women.

In a public statement, the Richmond County Sheriff's Office said access to the Flock system and other criminal-justice information systems is authorized only for official law-enforcement duties, and that "any personal use or unauthorized access is strictly prohibited and will not be tolerated." Capt. Danny Whitehead, an agency spokesperson, said the investigation remains open and that further arrests have not been ruled out. The case is part of a broader pattern of Flock-audit-driven firings across Georgia law enforcement in mid-2026, including five former Albany police officers arrested by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and firings in Greene County and Fayetteville.

Following the arrests of Johnson and his two colleagues, Sheriff Eugene Brantley announced new Flock access safeguards; see local-improper-collection-or-dissemination-of-personal-data-c6388a69 for that development.