Three Hall County Deputies Resign After Flock Searches Tied to Personal Requests and Off-Duty Use
HALL COUNTY, GA — Three Hall County Sheriff’s Office deputies resigned in late August 2026 while under internal investigation for unauthorized use of the agency’s Flock Safety license plate reader system, officials said. The cases formed part of a broader audit that later found seven total policy violations.
The deputies — Jason Orellana, Taylor McArthur, and Austin Scott Flanagan — left within two days of each other as Internal Affairs reviewed Flock search logs.
Jason Orellana
Orellana, a Uniform Patrol Division deputy employed since April 2019, resigned Aug. 26. Investigators determined he ran 10 unauthorized Flock searches at the request of a colleague who did not have system access. That colleague was Taylor McArthur. Orellana had previously worked in the jail, graduated from the police academy in December 2021, and moved to patrol in June 2024. In July 2025 the sheriff’s office named him Deputy of the Month and described him as a “workhorse.”
Taylor McArthur
McArthur, assigned to the Jail Division and employed since April 2023, resigned Aug. 27 — the same day she learned she was under investigation. Officials said she asked Orellana to “check the Flock system for information on persons known to her” and provided him the details needed to run the searches. Jail staff typically lack direct Flock access, which is why the queries went through a patrol deputy.
Austin Scott Flanagan
Flanagan, 30, a patrol deputy hired in November 2022, resigned Aug. 27 while already on paid administrative leave. Gainesville police had arrested him two days earlier, on Aug. 25, at sheriff’s office headquarters on a misdemeanor charge of making harassing phone calls. He posted a $650 bond and was released. Separate from that arrest, the Flock audit found he accessed the system twice for personal reasons unrelated to any law-enforcement purpose.
The sheriff’s office referred all three cases to the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council. Officials also said the matters would be reviewed for possible criminal charges along with the other audit cases. Press releases did not name the people whose plates were searched or specify whether the queries involved stalking, family matters, or other personal motives.
The three resignations came after two investigators had already been fired and before additional firings and a fourth resignation closed the audit on Sept. 4. Sheriff Gerald Couch later said the office reviewed 758 searches and flagged 85 as suspicious. He restricted Flock access from 124 users to 24, required a criminal case number for every future search, and shortened data retention.
The Hall County cases sit inside a larger 2026 wave of Flock misuse investigations in Georgia and other states, in which officers have been fired or charged for using the shared camera network to look up partners, acquaintances, or themselves rather than criminal suspects.Sources:
3 Hall County Deputies Resign Over Flock Camera Misuse
Jason Orellana, Taylor McArthur and Austin Scott Flanagan resign after audit finds unauthorized Flock license plate searches, including 10 queries run for a colleague and personal lookups.
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