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The Local Alert

Georgia · Dallas, Paulding County · Crime & Courts

Dallas, GA 911 Director Heidi Taylor Arrested on Two Misdemeanor Counts of Flock Camera Misuse

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Heidi Taylor, 52, the former 911 director for the Dallas Police Department, and charged her with two misdemeanor counts — not felonies — of misuse of a license plate reader system. She is accused of accessing the department's Flock Safety system for non-law-enforcement purposes between 2024 and 2025. She is charged, not convicted, and no count of searches appears in the record compiled for this page.

Published Aug. 13, 2026, 1:15 a.m. ET 16 min read Two misdemeanor counts · accused, not convicted · investigation active

Key facts

What
An arrest on two MISDEMEANOR counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. These are misdemeanors, not felonies
Who
Heidi Taylor, 52, of Dallas, Georgia — the former 911 director for the Dallas Police Department
Where
Dallas, the county seat of Paulding County, Georgia, in northwest metro Atlanta
When arrested
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. Booked into the Paulding County Jail
Alleged conduct
Accessing the Dallas Police Department Flock Safety system for non-law-enforcement purposes between 2024 and 2025, while serving as 911 director. This is an allegation
Killed or injured
Nobody. This is a records-misuse case. No injury and no death appears anywhere in the record compiled for this page
Arresting agency
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, at the request of the Dallas Police Department, which asked for the investigation on July 7, 2026
Number of searches
Not established. No count appears in the record compiled for this page. FOX 5 Atlanta states it is unclear how many times the database was improperly accessed
Reason for searches
Not released. FOX 5 Atlanta reports the GBI did not release the specific reason; WSB-TV reports investigators did not comment on what she searched for
Prosecutor
The GBI says the case goes to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office upon completion
Status
Active and ongoing. Charged, not convicted. Presumed innocent
Sourcing
Three independently owned newsrooms plus the GBI's own announcement. All four are listed at the bottom, with a fifth cited only for a separate matter, and each was opened before publication

What the GBI says happened

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Heidi Taylor, 52, of Dallas, Georgia, and charged her with two misdemeanor counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. Taylor is the former 911 director for the Dallas Police Department in Paulding County. The GBI says preliminary information indicates she accessed the Dallas Police Department Flock Safety system between 2024 and 2025 for non-law-enforcement purposes, and that she served as the department's 911 director during that period.

Every clause in that paragraph is an allegation. The GBI says it. A warrant asserts it. Nothing in the record compiled for this page establishes that any particular search happened, that any particular plate was queried, or that any particular person was looked up. That distinction is not a formality on a page like this one, and it is held to for the length of the article.

The arrest was Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, and Taylor was booked into the Paulding County Jail, per FOX 5 Atlanta and WSB-TV. Atlanta News First reports the arrest as Wednesday as well.

The investigation began at the department's own request. The GBI says the Dallas Police Department asked it to investigate allegations of misuse of the department's Flock Safety system on July 7, 2026. Atlanta News First and FOX 5 Atlanta both carry that date. WSB-TV describes the request as coming “early last month.”

What the agency did not say is as important as what it did. Atlanta News First reports that the GBI did not provide further details on the allegations against Taylor in its announcement of her arrest. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that the GBI did not release the specific reason behind Taylor's searches, that it is unclear how many times she improperly accessed the database, and that authorities did not say how the Dallas Police Department initially uncovered the alleged misuse. WSB-TV reports that investigators “did not comment on what she searched for.”

The rest of this page is the sourcing behind those paragraphs, general background on Georgia procedure, and an explicit statement of what is not known. There is no photograph and no map here, because neither would tell a reader anything the words do not.

Two misdemeanor counts, not felonies

The charges are misdemeanors. Two counts of misuse of a license plate reader system, both misdemeanors. That is how the GBI announced it, and it is how Atlanta News First, FOX 5 Atlanta and WSB-TV each described it independently.

This site puts that in a section of its own, high on the page, for a blunt reason: getting it wrong would convert a misdemeanor charge into a felony accusation against a named, living person. A page that says “felony” about a misdemeanor arrest is not a small error to be quietly patched later. It is a permanent, searchable misstatement about someone's record, and it attaches to her name every time somebody types it.

The stakes are concrete. A felony conviction in Georgia costs firearm rights, costs the vote while a sentence is being served, and triggers licensing and employment bars that misdemeanors generally do not. Two misdemeanor counts and two felony counts are different accusations with different futures.

Georgia does recognize a heavier misdemeanor tier — the misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature — and that tier is the penalty attached to the state's license plate reader statute. It is still a misdemeanor. The record compiled for this page does not state whether the two counts against Taylor were charged in that tier, and this page does not assert that they were.

Accused, not convicted — and why that governs every line here

Heidi Taylor has been arrested and charged. She has not been convicted of anything. The GBI describes its investigation as active and says the case will be forwarded to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for prosecution when it is complete. That is the entire posture of this case as of the timestamp at the bottom of this page.

So no sentence on this page narrates the alleged conduct as a thing that happened. There is a real editorial temptation in a story like this to write the vivid version — a director at a console, a plate typed in, a screen full of hits. That version has never been established anywhere in the record compiled for this page, and writing it would be inventing a scene and attaching it to a real name.

An arrest is the beginning of a legal process, not the end of one. Charges are booked by an arresting agency and then reviewed by a prosecutor who is free to add counts, reduce them, consolidate them or decline them entirely. None of that has happened in anything cited here.

The number nobody has established

No count of searches appears in the record compiled for this page. Not in the GBI's announcement, not in the Atlanta News First story, not in the FOX 5 Atlanta story, not in the WSB-TV story.

FOX 5 Atlanta says so explicitly. In its own summary of what is not known, the station states that it is unclear how many times she improperly accessed the database between 2024 and 2025. That is a newsroom putting a hole in its own story on purpose, and it is worth more than a confident number would be.

Attention: figures do circulate in aggregation, in headline text and in social posts in the hours after an arrest like this, and readers arriving here may have seen one. The Local Alert is not printing a search count for this case, because no article opened for this page carries one in its body. A number that exists only in a headline somebody else summarized is not a fact this site will hand a reader, and repeating one in order to knock it down is how it travels.

Nor does this page describe who or what was allegedly searched. The GBI did not release the reason, per FOX 5 Atlanta, and investigators did not comment on what she searched for, per WSB-TV. Describing an alleged subject on that basis would mean inventing a person out of an absence. No other individual is named here.

Who Heidi Taylor is, and what a 911 director does

Heidi Taylor is 52 and lives in Dallas, Georgia, per the GBI's announcement. She is the former 911 director for the Dallas Police Department, and every account cited here places her in that role during the 2024-to-2025 window described in the allegation.

WSB-TV reports that it is unclear when she left that position, or whether her departure was associated with the investigation. This page does not connect the two, because nothing in the record compiled for it does.

A 911 director is a civilian administrator, not a sworn officer in the ordinary case, and the distinction matters for how a case like this proceeds. A 911 or emergency-communications director runs the dispatch center: staffing the console positions, managing the call-taking and radio operations, handling the technology contracts and, critically, holding administrative access to the systems dispatchers use. That access is broad by design. A dispatch center that cannot query a records system quickly is a dispatch center that cannot do its job at two in the morning.

Dallas, Georgia — and why the name is a problem

Dallas is a city in Georgia and the county seat of Paulding County, in the northwest quadrant of metro Atlanta. It is not Dallas, Texas, and the Dallas Police Department in this story is a Georgia municipal police agency of the kind that serves a county-seat city, not the large Texas department that shares its name.

The relevant institutions here are all local: the Dallas Police Department, which owns the Flock Safety system in question and asked for the investigation; the Paulding County Jail, where the booking occurred; and the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, which the GBI says will receive the case. No coordinates appear in the record compiled for this page and none are published here.

The timeline: a July 7 request, an Aug. 12 arrest

WhenWhatEstablished by
2024–2025The window in which Taylor is alleged to have accessed the Dallas Police Department Flock Safety system for non-law-enforcement purposes, while serving as 911 directorGBI; Atlanta News First; FOX 5 Atlanta; WSB-TV
July 7, 2026The Dallas Police Department asks the GBI to investigate allegations of misuse of its Flock Safety systemGBI; Atlanta News First; FOX 5 Atlanta. WSB-TV describes it as “early last month”
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026The GBI arrests and charges Taylor on two misdemeanor counts; she is booked into the Paulding County JailGBI; FOX 5 Atlanta; WSB-TV; Atlanta News First (as “Wednesday”)
Upon completionThe case is to be forwarded to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for prosecutionGBI

What the timeline does not contain is a mechanism. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that authorities did not say how the Dallas Police Department first uncovered the alleged misuse before handing the matter to the GBI. An audit, a complaint and a vendor notification are all plausible routes and none of them is established here.

The arrest date, checked against the calendar

The arrest date is Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, and the day name and the calendar date agree. This page checked, rather than assuming, because a day-of-week and a date that disagree is one of the easiest errors to carry forward from a wire summary into a permanent page.

  • FOX 5 Atlanta reports that the GBI arrested and charged Taylor on Wednesday, and that she was booked into the Paulding County Jail on Wednesday. Its page is timestamped Aug. 12, 2026, 10:33 p.m. EDT
  • WSB-TV reports she was arrested by the GBI on Wednesday and booked into the Paulding County Jail. Its page is timestamped Aug. 13, 2026, 12:01 a.m. EDT
  • Atlanta News First reports she was arrested Wednesday. Its page is timestamped Aug. 12, 2026, 9:02 p.m. EDT, while the article's own web address carries an Aug. 13 path
  • The GBI press release announcing the arrest is dated Aug. 12, 2026
  • Aug. 12, 2026 falls on a Wednesday. The day name in the copy and the date on the release describe the same day

Where our sources differ

On the core of this story the four accounts line up unusually well, which is itself worth showing. The table below is therefore mostly a record of which source established which fact, with the two places where the wording diverges marked.

FactGBIAtlanta News FirstFOX 5 AtlantaWSB-TV
Name and ageHeidi Taylor, 52Heidi Taylor; “now 52”Heidi Taylor, 52Heidi Taylor, 52
City of residenceDallas, GeorgiaNot statedNot statedNot stated
ChargesTwo misdemeanor counts, misuse of a license plate reader systemTwo misdemeanor countsTwo misdemeanor countsTwo misdemeanor counts
Arrest dayRelease dated Aug. 12, 2026“Wednesday”“Wednesday”“Wednesday”
BookingPaulding County JailNot statedPaulding County JailPaulding County Jail
Date of the DPD requestJuly 7, 2026July 7July 7“early last month”
Alleged windowBetween 2024 and 2025Between 2024 and 2025Between 2024 and 2025Between 2024 and 2025
Number of searchesNot statedNot statedExpressly unclearNot stated
Reason for the searchesNot statedNo further details providedNot released by the GBIInvestigators did not comment on what she searched for
Custody status nowNot statedNot statedExpressly unclearNot stated
ProsecutorPaulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's OfficeNot statedNot statedNot stated

The two divergences are both about phrasing, not substance. WSB-TV's “early last month” and the July 7 date given by the other three are compatible descriptions of the same event, and this page prints both rather than silently upgrading the vaguer one. Atlanta News First's “now 52” is a small but careful construction, distinguishing her present age from her age during the 2024-to-2025 window; the other accounts give 52 flat.

Where the sources agree, they agree because the GBI issued one announcement, and three newsrooms worked from it. That is not four independent confirmations of the underlying allegation. It is one agency statement, reported by three newsrooms. A reader should weight it accordingly.

What a Flock license plate reader actually is and what it records

Flock Safety is a vendor. What it sells to police departments is an automated license plate reader network, and the useful way to understand it is not as a camera but as a searchable database of vehicle sightings.

Georgia's own statute defines the technology. An automated license plate recognition system, in the language of the Georgia code, means one or more high-speed cameras combined with computer algorithms used to convert images of license plates into computer-readable data. Captured license plate data is defined to include the global positioning coordinates, the date and time, a photograph, the license plate number, and any other data captured by or derived from the system.

In plain terms, one hit is a record that says: this plate, at this pole, at this minute, with a picture. A single hit is close to meaningless. A month of hits across a metro area is a movement history — where a car sleeps, when it leaves, the route it takes, where it stops.

Every query is supposed to leave a record. That audit trail — who ran the search, when, and the reason typed in at the time — is the entire mechanism by which these cases surface at all. The Savannah Police Department described its own system to WTOC in exactly those terms: every search run through the platform is automatically logged with the user, the time and the stated reason. Without a per-query log, an internal audit would have nothing to audit.

What Georgia law says about misusing one

The governing statute is O.C.G.A. § 35-1-22, titled, in full, prohibition on law enforcement retaining license plate data obtained from automated license plate recognition systems; limited use of data; public disclosure prohibited. It is cited here in plain text so anyone who wants the actual language can look up the section rather than take a summary of it.

The provisions that matter for a reader trying to understand this case:

  • It defines the system and the data in the terms quoted in the section above — the cameras, the algorithms, and the coordinates, timestamps, photographs and plate numbers that make up captured license plate data
  • It caps retention. Ordinary captured data must be destroyed no later than 30 months after it was originally collected, unless it is the subject matter of a toll violation or is being held for a law enforcement purpose. That is a legal ceiling, not a vendor setting; a department's own deletion window may be far shorter
  • It permits sharing of captured data among law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes
  • It requires policy. An agency deploying such a system must maintain policies for the system's use and operation, including policies for training officers in the use of captured data
  • It shields the data from the public. Captured license plate data collected by a law enforcement agency is not subject to public disclosure under Georgia's public records provisions
  • It sets the penalty. Knowingly requesting, using, obtaining or attempting to obtain captured license plate data “under false pretenses or for any purpose other than for a law enforcement purpose” is a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature — still a misdemeanor, not a felony. The same restrictions and penalties extend to contractors holding the data on an agency's behalf

Two cautions about applying that to this case. First, the record compiled for this page does not state which code section the two counts against Taylor were brought under, and this page does not assert one. Second, prosecutors in Georgia Flock cases have reached for other statutes as well — violation of oath by a public officer and stalking have both appeared in charging documents in other counties — and none of those counts appears in anything cited here about Taylor.

The Local Alert is not a law firm and this is not legal advice.

Misdemeanor versus felony in Georgia

This section is general Georgia background, offered because the misdemeanor-versus-felony line is the single most consequential thing to get right about this story.

The line is drawn by the maximum punishment, not by how serious the conduct sounds. A Georgia misdemeanor is generally punishable by up to 12 months of confinement plus a fine. A felony is an offense punishable by more than 12 months. Everything else — where the case is heard, what a conviction costs afterward — follows from that ceiling.

Georgia adds a middle tier. A misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature is still a misdemeanor and still capped at 12 months, but it carries a substantially larger maximum fine and reduced earned-time credit while a sentence is served. It is the tier the license plate reader statute uses. It is not a felony and should never be described as one.

None of the above states or predicts an outcome here. Taylor has been charged. What she is ultimately convicted of, if anything, is not established anywhere on this page.

Who the GBI is, and when it investigates local officials

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is the state's independent investigative agency. It is not a county sheriff's office, not a city police department, not the Georgia State Patrol and not the FBI, and those agencies are not interchangeable.

The GBI generally does not take a local case on its own initiative. It is invited — by a local agency, a district attorney, a judge or the governor. Here the GBI says the Dallas Police Department requested the investigation on July 7, 2026.

The GBI's role also ends earlier than people expect. It investigates and arrests; it does not prosecute. Its announcement says that upon completion the case will be forwarded to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office. The special agent in charge named on the announcement is Dustin Hamby, and the GBI takes tips on open cases at 800-597-TIPS (8477).

What happens next, procedurally

This section describes the ordinary Georgia sequence. It is not a schedule for this case, and no date on it is established anywhere in the record compiled for this page.

  • Booking and release. A misdemeanor booking is typically followed by a bond determination within a short window. FOX 5 Atlanta states it is unclear whether Taylor has posted bond or remains in custody
  • The file goes to the prosecutor. The GBI says the case will be forwarded to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office upon completion of the investigation
  • The prosecutor makes the charging decision. Misdemeanors in Georgia are ordinarily charged by accusation rather than by grand jury indictment. Counts can be added, reduced, consolidated or dropped, and the arresting agency's counts are not the last word
  • An arraignment follows, at which a plea is entered, and the case then moves along a pretrial track of motions and negotiation like any other
  • Most misdemeanors resolve without a trial. That is a description of ordinary volume, not a prediction about this defendant

The wider Georgia pattern

This arrest did not land in a vacuum, and the context comes from the sources themselves rather than from this site's own survey.

Atlanta News First reports that Taylor is the latest north Georgia law enforcement official to be accused of misusing Flock cameras, and that recent cases have been reported in Polk, Coweta, Habersham, Fayette, Rockdale, Cherokee and DeKalb counties.

FOX 5 Atlanta's own roundup adds detail: three Coweta County sheriff's employees resigned this month amid a Flock camera review; a former Habersham County deputy was fired and arrested last month after an internal audit; the Fayetteville Police Department terminated three officers after unauthorized searches; five police officers in Albany were charged; a deputy in Greene County was fired and charged; and a Cherokee County lieutenant and sergeant were charged in connection with Flock camera misuse. FOX 5 Atlanta also reports that the Atlanta Police Department announced this week that it will conduct an audit to determine whether any employees improperly accessed or misused the system.

Those are that station's characterizations of other cases, carried here as reported. This page has not independently examined any of them, none of them involves Taylor, and nothing about any of them says anything about whether the allegation against her is true.

The structural observation worth making is about detection, not about guilt. A wave of cases like this generally means auditing improved, not that behavior suddenly changed. A logged system produces evidence of its own misuse; an unlogged one produces silence.

Savannah: six employees fired, a separate matter

This is a different agency, a different investigation and different people. It is included only for context and it is not connected to Taylor.

WTOC reported on Aug. 7, 2026 that the Savannah Police Department terminated four sworn officers and two civilian employees following an internal investigation into misuse of the department's Flock Safety license plate reader system. The station reported that the department began an internal investigation on July 27 and referred all six cases to the GBI for independent criminal review, and that the employees had been placed on administrative leave after a proactive review of system activity flagged searches that appeared unrelated to legitimate law enforcement activity.

WTOC reported that investigators found employees running searches on personal acquaintances and family members, and that one officer had given someone from an outside agency access to the department's system without authorization. It reported that the names of the fired employees were not being released, citing the ongoing GBI criminal investigation and an employee appeals process.

Why this is not the Bibb County case

The Local Alert has a separate page on a Flock camera case in Bibb County, and the two must not be conflated.

  • Different county. Bibb County is in middle Georgia, around Macon. This case is in Paulding County, northwest of Atlanta
  • Different defendants. The Bibb County matter involves three former sheriff's deputies. This case involves one former civilian 911 director at a city police department
  • Different charges. The Bibb County matter includes stalking counts and violation of oath by a public officer. Neither of those charges appears in anything cited on this page about Taylor, whose two counts are misdemeanor misuse of a license plate reader system
  • Different agencies. A county sheriff's office is not a city police department, and the systems, policies and audit trails are separately owned

They share a subject — the misuse of license plate reader systems by Georgia law enforcement personnel — and nothing else. The Bibb County Flock camera case is covered separately here.

How to find out whether your own plate data was accessed

There is no consumer lookup, and the honest answer is that the path is narrow. This section is general Georgia procedure and is not about anyone connected to this case.

Start with what the law blocks. O.C.G.A. § 35-1-22 provides that captured license plate data held by a law enforcement agency is not subject to public disclosure. An open-records request aimed squarely at “every hit on my tag” is likely to be refused on that basis, and refusal is the ordinary outcome rather than a sign that something is being hidden from you.

What can realistically be requested, in order of how likely it is to produce something:

  • The agency's written ALPR policy. The same statute requires an agency deploying such a system to maintain policies for its use, operation and officer training. A policy is an administrative record, not captured plate data, and it tells you what the agency says it permits
  • Audit and oversight records that are not captured data — how often the agency audits, who conducts the audit, and what the review process is. Savannah's department described weekly audits by its Office of Professional Standards to WTOC; the answer will vary by agency
  • Disciplinary records of a closed personnel matter, which are analyzed separately from the plate data and separately from an open criminal file
  • The list of agencies with access to a given department's system, since the statute permits sharing among law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes and cross-agency access has been part of the misconduct findings elsewhere

If you believe you were the subject of an improper search, a complaint is the better route than a records request. It goes to the agency's internal affairs or professional standards function, in writing, with dates and the reason for the belief. Separately, the GBI takes tips at 800-597-TIPS (8477). A complaint can trigger an audit of the log; a records request generally cannot. Attention: in the Georgia cases that have become public, the log was read by the agency or by the GBI, not by the person whose plate was run. The Local Alert cannot check a plate for anyone and has no access to any agency's logs.

How to get an arrest record or incident report

Arrest and booking records in Georgia are public records, and the request goes to the agency that holds them — not to a news outlet and not to this site.

  • Identify the right custodian. The arresting agency here is the GBI; the booking facility is the Paulding County Jail. Those are two different agencies with two different records functions, and a request sent to the wrong one comes back as no record found
  • Cite the Act. Requests are made under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 and the sections following it. Naming the statute in the request is not a formality; it starts the clock
  • Be specific. Give the name and the date, Aug. 12, 2026, and ask for the arrest or booking record. A request for “everything about the Flock investigation” is a request for an open investigative file
  • Expect the investigative file to be withheld. Georgia agencies routinely withhold records of a pending investigation, and the GBI has described this investigation as active. That is an ordinary, lawful denial, not obstruction
  • Expect a response window. The Act generally requires a response within three business days — the record, an explanation for withholding it, or a timetable for producing it
  • Court filings are a separate custodian. Once a prosecution is filed, the accusation and the docket sit with the clerk of court, not with the police agency

The Local Alert has not obtained any record in this case. Everything on this page comes from the GBI's public announcement and the three named newsrooms listed at the bottom.

What we don't know yet

  • How many searches are alleged. No count appears in the record compiled for this page. FOX 5 Atlanta states expressly that it is unclear how many times the database was improperly accessed. No number is published here.
  • What was searched, or whose information. WSB-TV reports that investigators did not comment on what she searched for. No person other than Taylor is named or described on this page.
  • Why the searches were allegedly run. FOX 5 Atlanta reports the GBI did not release the specific reason. Atlanta News First reports the GBI did not provide further details on the allegations in its announcement.
  • How the Dallas Police Department first detected the alleged misuse. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that authorities did not say.
  • When Taylor left the 911 director position, and whether the departure was connected to the investigation. WSB-TV reports both are unclear.
  • Whether she has posted bond or remains in custody. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that this is unclear.
  • Which code section the two counts were brought under. No citation for the charges appears in anything cited here, and this page does not supply one.
  • Whether the counts were charged as high and aggravated misdemeanors. Not stated in the record compiled for this page.
  • Whether Taylor has counsel, and any statement from her or on her behalf. None appears in the record compiled for this page.
  • What the Dallas Police Department has changed, if anything, about access, auditing or policy since the referral. Nothing on that appears here.
  • What the district attorney will ultimately file. The GBI says the case goes to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office upon completion. Nothing beyond that is established.
  • Whether anyone else is under investigation in connection with the Dallas Police Department system. Nothing in the record compiled for this page describes another subject, and this page will not speculate about one.

Nothing above is filled in by inference. Where a fact is missing, this page says it is missing and scopes that statement to the record compiled for it. This page does not revisit itself as the case develops.

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Frequently asked questions

Who is Heidi Taylor and what is she accused of?
Heidi Taylor, 52, of Dallas, Georgia, is the former 911 director for the Dallas Police Department in Paulding County. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested her on two misdemeanor counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. The GBI says preliminary information indicates she accessed the department's Flock Safety system between 2024 and 2025 for non-law-enforcement purposes while serving as 911 director. Those are allegations, and nothing on this page states that the conduct occurred.

Is Heidi Taylor charged with a felony?
No. The charges are misdemeanors. The GBI, Atlanta News First, FOX 5 Atlanta and WSB-TV all describe two misdemeanor counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. This page states that plainly because the difference is not cosmetic: a misdemeanor in Georgia is punishable by up to 12 months, and a felony is an offense punishable by more than 12 months. Calling a misdemeanor charge a felony would misstate what a named, living person is actually accused of.

Has Heidi Taylor been convicted of anything?
No. She has been arrested and charged. An arrest is an accusation, not a finding. The GBI says the investigation is active and that the case will be forwarded to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for prosecution when it is complete. No plea, no hearing outcome and no disposition appears in the record compiled for this page. She is presumed innocent.

When was Heidi Taylor arrested?
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. FOX 5 Atlanta reports the GBI arrested and charged her on Wednesday and that she was booked into the Paulding County Jail on Wednesday. WSB-TV reports she was arrested by the GBI on Wednesday and booked into the Paulding County Jail. Atlanta News First reports she was arrested Wednesday, in a story its own page timestamps Aug. 12, 2026 at 9:02 p.m. EDT. The GBI press release announcing the arrest is dated Aug. 12, 2026. Aug. 12, 2026 was a Wednesday, so the day name and the calendar date agree.

How many times is Heidi Taylor accused of searching the Flock system?
No count appears in the record compiled for this page. FOX 5 Atlanta states in its own summary of open questions that it is unclear how many times she improperly accessed the database between 2024 and 2025. WSB-TV reports that investigators did not comment on what she searched for. The GBI's announcement gives a date range and a purpose category, not a number. The Local Alert does not print a search count for this case, because no article opened for this page carries one in its text.

Did the GBI say why Taylor allegedly ran the searches?
No. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that the GBI did not release the specific reason behind Taylor's searches. Atlanta News First reports that the GBI did not provide further details on the allegations in its announcement of her arrest. WSB-TV reports that investigators did not comment on what she searched for. This page therefore does not describe who or what was searched, and it does not name any other person in connection with the allegation.

What is a Flock camera and what does it record?
Flock Safety sells an automated license plate reader system. Georgia law defines such a system as high-speed cameras combined with computer algorithms that convert images of license plates into computer-readable data, and defines the captured data to include the coordinates, the date and time, a photograph and the plate number. In plain terms, it records that a particular plate passed a particular fixed point at a particular minute, and stores that as a searchable record.

What Georgia law covers misuse of a license plate reader?
O.C.G.A. section 35-1-22. It caps retention of ordinary captured data at 30 months, allows sharing among law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes, requires an agency deploying such a system to maintain use and training policies, and provides that the captured data is not subject to public disclosure. Its penalty provision makes it a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature to knowingly request, use or obtain captured plate data under false pretenses or for any purpose other than a law enforcement purpose. The record compiled for this page does not state which code section the two counts against Taylor were brought under, and this page does not assert one.

What is the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony in Georgia?
The dividing line is the punishment the offense carries. A Georgia misdemeanor is generally punishable by up to 12 months of confinement and a fine. A felony is an offense punishable by more than 12 months. Georgia also recognizes a middle tier, the misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature, which remains a misdemeanor and still carries a ceiling of 12 months but exposes a defendant to a larger maximum fine and to less generous credit while serving. This is general Georgia background, not a statement about the sentence in any particular case.

Why did the GBI investigate instead of the Dallas Police Department?
Because the allegation was about the department's own system and its own director. The GBI is Georgia's independent state investigative agency and is generally invited into a local case rather than taking one on its own. The GBI says the Dallas Police Department requested the investigation on July 7, 2026. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that authorities did not say how the department initially uncovered the alleged misuse.

Who will prosecute the case?
The GBI says that upon completion the case will be forwarded to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for prosecution. A district attorney is not bound by the counts an arresting agency books. Charges can be added, reduced, consolidated or dismissed at that stage, and none of that has happened in anything cited on this page.

Is Heidi Taylor still in jail?
That is not established here. FOX 5 Atlanta states it is unclear whether Taylor has posted bond or remains in custody at the Paulding County Jail. Custody status for a misdemeanor booking commonly changes within hours, so any figure a reader finds elsewhere may reflect a different moment. This page does not state a custody status.

Is this the same case as the Bibb County Flock deputies?
No. They are separate cases in separate counties with separate defendants and different charges. The Bibb County matter involves three former Bibb County sheriff's deputies and includes stalking and violation-of-oath counts. This Paulding County matter involves one former civilian 911 director charged with two misdemeanor counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. The two cases share a subject, not a file, and this page does not blend them.

How can I find out whether my own license plate was searched in Georgia?
There is no consumer lookup, and the path is narrow. O.C.G.A. section 35-1-22 provides that captured license plate data held by a law enforcement agency is not subject to public disclosure, so an open-records request aimed at the data itself is likely to be refused. What a resident can realistically request is the agency's written policy governing use of the system, which the same statute requires it to maintain, plus audit, training and disciplinary records that are not themselves captured plate data. If you believe you were the subject of an improper search, the complaint goes to the agency's internal affairs or professional standards function and, separately, to the GBI, which takes tips at 800-597-TIPS (8477). The Local Alert cannot check a plate for anyone and has no access to any agency's logs.

How do I get a copy of the arrest record?
Arrest and booking records in Georgia are public records held by the agency that made or booked the arrest, not by a news outlet. Here the arresting agency is the GBI and the booking facility is the Paulding County Jail. Requests are made under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. section 50-18-70 and the sections following it. Give the name and the date, Aug. 12, 2026, and ask for the arrest or booking record rather than the investigative file, which an agency will withhold while a case is open. The Act generally requires a response within three business days.

What do we still not know about this case?
How many searches are alleged. What was searched, or whose information. Why the searches were allegedly run. How the Dallas Police Department first detected the alleged misuse. When Taylor left the 911 director position, and whether that departure was connected to the investigation. Whether she has posted bond. Which code section the two counts were brought under. What the district attorney will ultimately file. The Local Alert does not fill blanks like these by inference.

Sources

These are the sources this page relies on, and what each one is cited for. Each was opened and read before publication. Three are independently owned newsrooms; the fourth is the arresting agency's own announcement. The fifth is cited only for the separate Savannah matter.

  • Georgia Bureau of Investigation — the arresting agency's own announcement, dated Aug. 12, 2026. Source for the two misdemeanor counts of misuse of a license plate reader system, Taylor's age of 52 and her city of residence as Dallas, Georgia, the July 7, 2026 request from the Dallas Police Department, the 2024-to-2025 window, the booking into the Paulding County Jail, the statement that the case will be forwarded to the Paulding Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for prosecution upon completion, the special agent in charge Dustin Hamby, and the tipline 800-597-TIPS (8477).
  • Atlanta News First — a Gray Media newsroom. Source for the arrest on Wednesday, the two misdemeanor counts, the July 7 request, the 2024-to-2025 window, the “now 52” construction, the statement that the GBI did not provide further details on the allegations in its announcement, and the list of counties where recent Flock misuse cases have been reported: Polk, Coweta, Habersham, Fayette, Rockdale, Cherokee and DeKalb.
  • FOX 5 Atlanta — a FOX Television Stations newsroom. Source for the arrest and booking on Wednesday, the two misdemeanor counts, the July 7 request, the express statements that the GBI did not release the reason for the searches, that it is unclear how many times the database was improperly accessed, that authorities did not say how the department first uncovered the alleged misuse, and that it is unclear whether Taylor has posted bond; also the Coweta, Habersham, Fayetteville, Albany, Greene County and Cherokee County items, the reports of camera tampering in Henry and Barrow counties and by fire in Albany, and the Atlanta Police Department audit announcement.
  • WSB-TV — a Cox Media Group newsroom. Source for the arrest by the GBI on Wednesday and booking into the Paulding County Jail on two misdemeanor counts, the description of the request as coming early last month, the statement that investigators did not comment on what she searched for, and the statement that it is unclear when she left the 911 director position or whether that was associated with the investigation.
  • WTOC — cited only for the separate Savannah Police Department matter: four sworn officers and two civilian employees terminated, the July 27 start of the internal investigation, the referral of all six cases to the GBI, the finding that searches were run on personal acquaintances and family members, the unauthorized outside-agency access, the per-query audit logging, and the decision not to release names.
About this report

Compiled by The Local Alert Georgia Staff from the GBI's public announcement and the named newsrooms listed above. The sections on automated license plate readers, O.C.G.A. § 35-1-22, Georgia misdemeanor and felony classification, the role of the GBI, open records and how a resident may inquire about plate data are general background, not findings in this case. The charges are two misdemeanor counts, not felonies. Heidi Taylor has been arrested and charged; she has not been convicted, and she is presumed innocent. No number of searches is established anywhere in the record compiled for this page and none is published here. No person other than Taylor is named. The Savannah and Bibb County matters described here are separate cases involving different people. The Local Alert is not a law enforcement agency and not a law firm. Corrections and removal requests: see our corrections policy.

Reported and fact-checked as of .

Every source named on this page was opened and read at that time. The Local Alert compiles what each named source reported and shows you which source established which fact — and where only one source stands behind a fact, we say so. On this story the GBI issued one announcement and three independently owned newsrooms reported it, so agreement among them is not four separate confirmations of the underlying allegation. The charges are misdemeanors. Heidi Taylor is accused, not convicted. This page is a record of what was known and confirmed at that moment; it is not updated automatically as the case develops. For the current status of an active investigation, contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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We report from named outlets and public records, and every fact here is linked to its source. If something is inaccurate — a name, a road, an agency, a number — tell us and we will correct it and note the correction on this page.

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