The Roundabout, Milton, GA

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2026 · Issue No. 63 · 10 min read

Milton narrowed who can search its camera data. When?

Sept. 11: agencies outside Georgia “can access” it, depending on settings. Sept. 18: “recently changed.” And a federal and state sharing agreement.

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In this issue

Who can search the city’s camera data. On Sept. 11 the police said agencies outside Georgia could, depending on the city’s sharing settings. By Sept. 18, only Georgia agencies could. And a separate agreement sets up sharing of selected data with federal and state partners.

The answers we promised. Milton’s Flock cameras take still photos, not video, the police say, and the department turned down a Flock proposal for video cameras.

The home price list. Milton tops a new list ranked by dollars gained. Its one-year gain, 2.8 percent, was more than double the nation’s; its five-year gain, 40.6 percent, was the list’s second-biggest.

Your answers. 32 of you on restaurant health scores. The biggest group checks only sometimes.

And. Milton 63, Johns Creek 0; a tax vote and a voter registration deadline, both Oct. 5; and Crabapple Fest on Saturday, with rain in the forecast.

Top of Mind

the one thing to know this morning

Milton police run 36 license plate cameras made by Flock, a camera company. They photograph passing cars, and the photos stay searchable for a year. Three written answers from the police department, a week apart, show a change in who can search them.

Sept. 11. We asked whether Milton was in Flock’s national network and whether agencies outside Georgia could search its data. The department answered “Yes,” and wrote that authorized agencies outside Georgia “can access Milton-collected data depending on the City’s sharing settings.” We printed that Sept. 13. The department’s Sept. 11 answers on the cameras are posted in full on our camera map page.

Sept. 18. The department wrote that the city “has recently changed its sharing configuration.” Milton’s data, it wrote, “is now limited to law enforcement agencies within the State of Georgia,” about 800 of them. That is a privacy step for anyone who drives through Milton, and we have not found a city announcement of it.

The Sept. 11 answer did not say what the settings were that day. If it described them as they stood, the change came within a week. On Saturday we asked when it took effect and who made it.

Sept. 25. On Sept. 16 we had asked whether the city had signed an agreement about its cameras with HIDTA, a federal anti-drug program that coordinates federal, state and local police. (The letters stand for High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas.) The department said yes. Its agreement with HIDTA’s License Plate Reader Integration Project “establishes a framework for sharing selected license plate reader data with our federal and state partners for legitimate law enforcement purposes.”

The reason it gave: several of Milton’s cameras sit along state routes, and Georgia State Patrol policy requires the agreement before an agency can get permits for plate readers on state highways. The agreement “does not transfer ownership or control” of the city’s system or its data to HIDTA, the department wrote.

How that fits with the Sept. 18 answer, Georgia agencies only, is the open question. On Saturday we asked which federal agencies receive the selected data, what gets selected and since when, and who signed the agreement and on what date.

The two answers we promised. No Flock video: Milton’s Flock cameras “capture still images and associated vehicle information,” the department wrote, and the city does not currently operate “any Flock cameras that provide continuous recording or live-video feeds.”

More Flock cameras? Not in this budget. The police have asked Flock for proposals before, and the city has bought more standard plate cameras through agreements and purchase orders, the department wrote. More recently it reviewed Flock’s Safe City platform, which includes fixed video cameras and cameras that pan, tilt and zoom, and Flock sent a proposal. The department decided not to go ahead, and it requested no new Flock equipment in the budget for the year that starts Oct. 1.

The department’s side. It says search results are “investigative leads,” “not treated as conclusive identifications,” and that officers must verify them before acting. Milton’s own officers can search data from about 3,000 participating agencies and organizations across the United States, the department wrote Sept. 18. In 2024, it said, a partner agency’s cameras helped a Milton officer find the vehicle in a kidnapping case, which led police to the victim, who was rescued.

Your turn

What would you ask the police department next about the cameras? Reply to this email.

Correction

what we got wrong, and what replaces it

Tuesday’s and Thursday’s issues said the police department’s written answers to us were posted in full with our first camera story. They are not in that story. The department’s Sept. 11 answers about the cameras are posted in full on our camera map page. Its later answers are quoted in our issues but have not been posted in full. Every correction we have run is on our corrections page.

On the Market

Milton is No. 1 on another Atlanta-area home price list. This one ranks cities by how many dollars their typical home gained in a year, and Milton’s gained $26,072, to $946,504, in the year through August, according to Zillow figures compiled by Stacker and published by WSB Radio.

By percentage, Milton’s one-year gain of 2.8 percent was more than double the national rise of 1.3 percent, but smaller than the gains in 22 of the other 29 places on the list. Over five years, only one place on the list grew faster by percentage: White, Ga., at 48.6 percent. The typical Milton home is up $273,230, or 40.6 percent, in that time.

Sandy Springs was second on the one-year list, up $23,679, and Brookhaven third. Every active listing in town, refreshed each night, is in our Milton Homes directory.

Reader poll · One tap

Would you sell your Milton home at today’s prices?

Zillow puts the typical Milton home at $946,504, the highest of any city in the metro.

Yes, for the right offer
Not yet, maybe in a few years
No, we are staying put
We rent, or we just bought

Tap once and you’ll see how everyone else voted. Results Tuesday.

You Told Us

Thursday’s poll asked how often you look up a restaurant’s health inspection score, the grade out of 100 that county inspectors give, before eating out. 32 of you answered: 11 look one up sometimes, when you are unsure; 8 go on reputation; 7 did not know the scores were public (now you do); and 6 always check.

They are public, and they move. Taco Nest Taqueria, which scored 72 out of 100 this month, has its county follow-up inspection Wednesday. The latest score for every Milton restaurant is in our dining directory.

The Scoreboard

every game, both schools, the night it finishes

Friday’s final

Milton Eagles

Milton 63

4-1 · No. 8 in Georgia · No. 4 in Class 6A

Johns Creek 0

Final · region game at Johns Creek

This Friday · both at home · 7:30

Milton Eagles

Milton vs. Lanier

4-1 · coming off a 63-0 win
 
Cambridge Bears

Cambridge vs. Sprayberry

2-3 · rested after a week off

Rankings: MaxPreps, Sept. 24. Records include Friday’s game.

Softball. Cambridge won 7-4 at Blessed Trinity on Thursday. On Monday, Milton hosts North Atlanta at 6 and Cambridge plays two at Northview.

Volleyball. Cambridge lost 3-1 to Walker at home Thursday.

Flag football. Milton’s girls host Centennial on Monday at 7:30. Every schedule and score →

The Blotter

police and fire calls worth knowing, Tuesdays

Back Tuesday. Every item we have printed so far is pinned on our map, along with how The Blotter works. Something on your street we should look into? Reply to this email.

The Agenda

public meetings this week and next

Monday, Oct. 5, is a double deadline. Council takes its final vote that night on the city’s property tax rate. Staff recommends no change to the operating rate of 4.193 mills. Each mill means $1 of tax per $1,000 of taxable value, which in Georgia is 40 percent of the county’s appraisal, minus exemptions. And Oct. 5 is the last day you can register for the Nov. 3 election.

Check your voter registration
Add the Oct. 5 vote to Google Calendar

This Week in Milton

the calendar, day by day

The week ahead. Sunny and in the 80s through Thursday, with lows from the low 50s to the upper 60s. Then Saturday, with Crabapple Road full of tents, showers turn likely. Of course they do.

Worth circling. On Tuesday at 6:30, civil rights activist Joan Browning talks about her time as a Freedom Rider, challenging segregation in the South in 1961, at the Milton library. It is free.

Illustration of Crabapple Fest: rows of white vendor tents down a closed street past a red-brick corner building, bunting strung overhead, families with strollers and a wagon, a green food truck, and a golden retriever on a leash

Six days out. Crabapple Fest fills a closed stretch of Crabapple Road on Saturday from 10 to 5. With showers in the forecast, bring a rain layer, and park at the free shuttle lots on Birmingham Highway instead of a neighborhood street. Our fest guide has the lots and the accessible parking.

Monday, September 28

Tuesday, September 29

Wednesday, September 30

Thursday, October 1

Friday, October 2

Saturday, October 3

See the full Milton calendar → · Got an event? Submit it

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