SHIELDS OF SHAME | GEORGIA FLOCK ABUSE DATABASE | CASE 031
Jose Luis Ferrer: Richmond County Deputy Fired, Arrested and Listed With Suspended POST Certifications After Flock Misuse Allegations
Six Richmond County employees were arrested in an expanding Flock surveillance scandal. Ferrer’s case offers a revealing contrast between his documented employment and certification consequences and the questions that only the underlying search logs can answer.
August 31, 2026: the arrest and termination
On August 31, 2026, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests of Deputy Jose Luis Ferrer and Investigator Sean Morrow following investigations into alleged misuse of the agency’s Flock Safety automated license plate reader system. Investigators said Ferrer knowingly accessed the database and searched license plates for personal reasons unrelated to a legitimate law-enforcement purpose. The Sheriff’s Office reported that the searches were not tied to an active criminal investigation, a call for service or authorized intelligence work.
Ferrer was charged with Misuse of License Plate Readers and Violation of Oath of Office, booked into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center and terminated from the Sheriff’s Office. Arrest and termination are documented developments; criminal charges are allegations, not convictions. Ferrer’s exact plate queries, search totals, intended targets and alleged motives beyond the agency’s general description have not been independently established from a native Flock audit.
What the Georgia POST record shows
The supplied Georgia POST material reports Richmond County employment terminated August 31, 2026, Basic Law Enforcement certification suspended, LIDAR certification suspended and an overall Review Required status. Those are the status entries reflected in the supplied record; the image is a historical snapshot and does not prove that the same entries remain current today. A suspension is not the same as a permanent revocation, and an administrative certification action is not a criminal judgment.
Open the complete supplied Jose Luis Ferrer POST record (PDF) ↗
Exclusive historical footage: an earlier sidewalk encounter
Shields of Shame previously recorded Ferrer during a separate public-sidewalk interaction involving Deputy Todd Beasley. According to the producer’s account, Beasley directed the photographer to move back while officers handled an incident. Ferrer was standing nearby. When asked for his name, Ferrer identified himself without argument or escalation, and the interaction ended. The footage provides a direct look at Ferrer in a public encounter, but it does not depict Flock searches, prove the criminal allegations, or establish misconduct by Ferrer during that interaction.
Watch the original Jose Luis Ferrer encounter video in a new tab ↗
The sixth arrest in a growing agency scandal
Richmond County’s first publicly reported case in this 2026 sequence involved Jaquarius Yarbrough, whose alleged personal-use queries were flagged after a June 25 audit. On July 20, Lieutenant John Lee McKenzie III, Investigator Curtis Hoskins and Deputy Joshua Johnson were arrested and terminated over similar Flock allegations. The August 31 arrests of Sean Morrow and Jose Ferrer brought the reported total to six employees.
Although the alleged conduct involved the same surveillance platform, no available record establishes a conspiracy or coordinated search activity among these six employees. The cases must be investigated individually.
What the sheriff disclosed after the arrests
In September, Sheriff Eugene Brantley publicly discussed the agency’s former access controls. Local reporting said roughly 330 deputies had previously been able to access a system involving nearly 200 Flock cameras without obtaining individual supervisor approval before each search. After the arrests, the Sheriff’s Office tightened direct access to supervisors and intelligence personnel, requiring search requests to include information such as a case number, reason and badge number.
Brantley also described a Flock anomaly-detection tool introduced in April 2026 and subsequent manual audit reviews. Those changes raise two different accountability questions: why so many employees were able to search without per-query approval, and how many inappropriate searches may have occurred before the new auditing practices.
Timeline of the Jose Luis Ferrer investigation
- June 25, 2026: Jaquarius Yarbrough’s case emerges from an audit.
- July 20: McKenzie, Hoskins and Johnson are arrested and terminated.
- August 31: Ferrer and Morrow are arrested and terminated; Ferrer faces two reported charges.
- September 4: The sheriff explains the former broad-access system and tighter new controls.
- Historical POST record: Ferrer’s employment is marked terminated; basic and LIDAR certifications are marked suspended; review is required.
- October 12: A final criminal disposition or later certification order was not independently verified in the reviewed reporting.
Original evidence and exhibits
Exhibit 1 — POST certification status image ↗
Exhibit 2 — Full supplied POST PDF ↗
Sources and related investigations
Original Shields of Shame Ferrer investigation ↗
Standing Record: Richmond County Flock case chronology ↗
WRDW: no prior supervisor approval and broad Flock access ↗
Related case: Investigator Sean Morrow ↗
Related case: Lieutenant John Lee McKenzie III ↗
Related case: Jaquarius Yarbrough ↗
Records Shields of Shame needs next
- Complete Ferrer Flock audit exports in native CSV format, including all query timestamps, account IDs, search reasons and case numbers
- Any audit anomalies, alerts, reviewer notes, access histories, screenshots and exported search results
- Original criminal complaint, arrest warrants, charging documents, docket, and any final court disposition
- Internal Affairs case number, investigative interviews, policy findings, discipline letter and termination notice
- Flock user-access policy and training acknowledgments before and after the September access changes
- Current Georgia POST certification status, suspension order and any final disciplinary action
Frequently asked questions
Why was Jose Luis Ferrer arrested?
The Sheriff’s Office alleged that he searched its Flock license plate reader database for personal reasons unrelated to legitimate police work.
What charges did he face?
Misuse of License Plate Readers and Violation of Oath of Office.
Is Ferrer’s certification revoked?
The supplied historical POST record identifies basic and LIDAR certifications as suspended, not revoked. The current live status requires a fresh POST check.
Does the video show Ferrer abusing Flock?
No. It shows a separate historical sidewalk encounter in which Ferrer reportedly identified himself without incident.
Was Ferrer convicted?
No final criminal disposition was independently verified in the reviewed sources. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Updated October 12, 2026. This report distinguishes allegations, employment actions, historical POST entries and independently documented footage. Further audit records may materially change the findings.