A Richmond County Sheriff’s Office deputy is facing criminal charges after authorities say he used license plate reader technology with no case, no call for service, and no legitimate reason behind a single search.
Deputy Corey Whitfield is charged with misuse of license plate reader technology and violation of oath of office. He was booked at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center in Augusta, Georgia, and has been fired from the department.
“Personal Reasons”
According to the sheriff’s office, Whitfield’s plate searches were conducted for what he described as “personal reasons” — with no tie to any criminal investigation, any call for service, or any intelligence-gathering. The department has not said whose plates he searched or why.
License plate readers photograph every plate that passes them and log the time, plate number, and location of every scan. That same logging is what made the unauthorized searches visible to investigators — the audit trail that’s supposed to catch criminals ended up catching a deputy.
A Pattern, Not a Fluke
Whitfield’s case is hardly isolated. This same week, a Savannah police officer was fired for sharing her Flock camera login with her husband, an ICE agent, whose account ran nearly a thousand searches across six states. Before that: officers in Massachusetts, Texas, and Illinois caught running plates on people they knew — exes, neighbors, public figures.
The technology that tracks every driver’s movements is only as disciplined as the people holding the login. When a deputy runs your plate “for personal reasons,” there’s often no way you’d ever know.
What’s Next
Whitfield’s bond and court date had not been made public as of Friday. This story will be updated when arraignment details become available.
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