The Roundabout, Milton, GA

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2026 · Issue No. 64 · 12 min read

Did anyone elected approve Milton's year of plate data?

Police say the longer window helps with late leads. By April 2025, Flock's policy said it took an elected official's or council's OK.

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In this issue

Plate cameras. Milton keeps its Flock plate camera data for a year. Police told us Flock, the camera company, began calling in August for elected officials to approve periods that long, after Milton’s switch. Flock’s policy had that rule by April 2025. Plus three corrections.

Your answers. 28 of you on selling at today’s prices.

And. Part of Crabapple Road closes at 10 a.m. Friday for Saturday’s Crabapple Fest, rain or shine; two home games Friday night; and Oct. 5, the tax vote and the last day to register to vote.

Top of Mind

the one thing to know this morning

Milton police keep the photos and vehicle data from the city’s 36 Flock license plate cameras for a year, up from 30 days. The department says the longer window helps investigators whose leads surface late. Flock Safety makes the cameras and stores what they capture.

We asked who approved the change. The department wrote on Sept. 18 that it took effect in October 2025, in an upgrade the chief and the city manager authorized. Then it added a line about Flock:

“This was before Flock’s new August 13, 2026 guidance calling for elected-official or governing-body approval of longer periods.”

Milton’s change did come before that August guidance. But the approval rule in it was not new. By April 2025, about six months before Milton’s change, a public policy on Flock’s website set a standard of 30 days and said a longer period, up to a year, needed approval from an elected official or a governing body, such as a city council. Our Sept. 20 issue printed the department’s timeline too; our correction is below.

What changed when

By April 2025 · Flock

Flock’s evidence policy sets a 30-day standard. A police agency can keep data up to a year, but only after an elected official or a governing body approves it.

October 2025 · Milton

Milton goes from 30 days to a year. The police chief and the city manager authorized it, the department says.

Aug. 12 and 13, 2026 · Flock

Flock cuts its standard to seven days, first in its policy and then in an announcement. The approval sentence stays the same.

Sept. 18, 2026 · Milton police

The department writes that Milton’s change came before Flock’s “new August 13, 2026 guidance” on approval.

Page 6 of Flock Safety's Evidence Request Policy as the Internet Archive saved it on April 8, 2025. Highlighted: If a customer wishes to impose a longer retention period that is not already required by its jurisdiction's laws, Flock will offer an extended retention for up to one year, but shall require the agency to first obtain approval from an elected official and/or a governing body. This allows the decision to be made transparently and with the support of the community.

Page 6 of Flock’s Evidence Request Policy, as the Internet Archive, which saves copies of web pages, captured it on April 8, 2025. The highlighted rule says Flock “shall require the agency to first obtain approval from an elected official and/or a governing body.” (Retention means how long data is kept.) The same file is still on Flock’s website. Highlighting ours. Tap the page to open the full policy.

The chief and the city manager are appointed, not elected. Flock’s policy gives its reason for the rule: approval “allows the decision to be made transparently and with the support of the community.” Its current policy, updated in August, cuts the standard to seven days and keeps that rule word for word.

It is a company rule, not a law. Georgia lets police keep plate data up to 30 months, so a year is legal. But the policy puts the duty on Flock, which “shall require” the approval.

Still open. We asked Flock on Monday whether it required, and received, that approval from Milton before switching on the one-year setting. It had not answered by our 9 p.m. deadline; we will print its answer when it comes. Our Sept. 26 written questions to the department, due Friday, ask whether the mayor or any councilmember was told before the change took effect.

The department’s side. It chose a year from investigative experience, the department says. A lead on a vehicle may not turn up within seven or 30 days, especially while detectives wait on cell phone records or other evidence obtained through legal process. In several cases, older plate records have helped confirm evidence that came in later. The department says plate data is not treated as proof by itself, only as one tool alongside other evidence.

It also points to the city’s budget book for the year that began Oct. 1, 2025, which gives the change one line, “upgraded software to extend retention of data,” without saying for how long. Asked whether the Council discussed it, the department said: “We can’t recall if it was specifically discussed during a Council meeting.” The city will seek outside guidance, it said, and will look at whether a coming Flock feature can keep the records open cases need if Milton shortens how long it keeps everything else.

That feature is what Flock calls Evidence Mode. Flock announced it Aug. 13, saying it lets detectives preserve specific plate records for an active investigation, and that “customers who adopt the 7-day recommendation will receive Evidence Mode at no cost.” Flock said then that it would roll out “in the coming weeks”; the department called it “forthcoming” on Sept. 18. Flock also says it will require case codes on all law enforcement searches, and its audit tool for every police customer, by the end of the year. Milton already uses that audit tool, the department told us Sept. 11.

Nearby. Alpharetta and Johns Creek keep their plate data 30 days, their police departments’ public camera pages say; Roswell’s page does not list a period. Read the full story, with both versions of Flock’s policy.

Reader poll · One tap

Who should decide how long Milton keeps plate camera data?

Milton’s police chief and city manager authorized the move from 30 days to a year, the department told us, saying leads can surface late. Flock’s policy calls for approval from an elected official or a governing body, such as a city council. Georgia law allows up to 30 months.

City Council, in a public vote
The police chief and city manager
State law, one rule for all of Georgia
Not sure

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

Your turn. Has one of Milton’s plate cameras ever helped you, or worried you? Reply to this email and tell us what happened. We won’t print your name or your words without asking.

Correction

what we got wrong, and what replaces it

Our Sept. 20 issue said Flock’s call for elected approval of longer storage came in August, after Milton’s change. It was in Flock’s policy by April 2025. That issue’s summary also said the police told us the year was approved without a Council vote. They said the chief and the city manager authorized it, and that they can’t recall whether it was specifically discussed at a Council meeting.

Our Sept. 22 issue said no alternative tax rates were shown at the Sept. 21 meeting. Staff presented a lower one, 4.129 mills. Every correction we have run is on our corrections page.

You Told Us

Sunday we asked whether you would sell your Milton home at today’s prices. Zillow puts the typical one at $946,504. Of the 28 of you who answered, 13 said not yet, maybe in a few years; 7 would sell for the right offer; 7 are staying put; and 1 rents or just bought. It isn’t a scientific poll, just the readers who tapped.

Would you sell at today’s prices?

Not yet, maybe in a few years

 
13 (46%)

Yes, for the right offer

  
7 (25%)

No, we are staying put

  
7 (25%)

We rent, or we just bought

  
1 (4%)

28 readers, one tap each, all on Sunday.

One in four who answered would sell for the right offer, and nearly half would rather wait. None of you said how much.

The Scoreboard

every game, both schools, the night it finishes

Friday · two home games · 7:30

Milton Eagles

Milton vs. Lanier

4-1 · No. 8 in Georgia · No. 3 in Class 6A
 
Cambridge Bears

Cambridge vs. Sprayberry

2-3 · won its last two

Both are region games, and each team is 1-0 in region play. Friday night’s forecast: a 35 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms.

Records from our game results. Rankings: MaxPreps, Sept. 27.

Monday. Softball: Milton beat North Atlanta 14-6 at home, and Cambridge won the first of two at Northview, 19-0. Flag football: Milton’s girls beat Centennial 46-0 and River Ridge 27-0, both at home.

Home this week. Cambridge softball hosts Chattahoochee tonight at 6 and St. Pius X on Thursday at 5:30, and Milton softball hosts Riverwood on Thursday at 6:30. Cambridge volleyball hosts Mt. Bethel Christian at 5 tonight and Harrison at 7. Every schedule and score →

The Blotter

police and fire calls worth knowing, Tuesdays

Sept. 21 to 27. From police and fire dispatch traffic. A dispatch call is a report, not a finding, and we write it that way. Streets, not house numbers. No names.

Of the dispatch calls we track, 51 were in or near Milton that week, 48 for police and 3 for fire. Most of the rest were routine, including traffic stops, noise complaints and two calls about deer. Something on your street we should look into? Reply to this email. Every item we have printed is on our map, along with how The Blotter works.

The Agenda

public meetings this week and next

OCT
5

Monday · in six days

Council’s scheduled tax-rate vote, and the last day to register for the Nov. 3 election.

Council is scheduled to set the city’s property tax rate at its 6 p.m. meeting at City Hall. The ordinance presented Sept. 21 keeps the operating rate at 4.193 mills, the current rate. (A mill is $1 of tax on each $1,000 of assessed value. Georgia assesses a home at 40 percent of the county’s appraisal, and exemptions come off that.) Because 4.193 is the rate the city advertised, Council can adopt it or anything lower. That meeting’s packet also showed a lower option, 4.129 mills. On a home the county appraises at $950,000, the difference is about $24 a year in city tax, before exemptions. Citywide, the lower rate would bring in about $282,000 less a year if every bill were paid.

For the election, Fulton County takes voter registrations through the close of business that Monday, and early voting starts Oct. 13.

Check your registration on My Voter Page →
Add to Google Calendar: the Oct. 5 tax vote →

This Week in Milton

the calendar, day by day

The forecast. Sunny through Thursday, with lows from 56 this morning to 66 Thursday night. Highs run 84 today, 87 Wednesday and 88 Thursday, which is October. Friday reaches 88 before a 35 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms that lasts into the night. Saturday, rain showers are likely: a 64 percent chance, with a high of 84.

Tonight at the library. Freedom Rider Joan Browning gives a firsthand account of standing up to segregation, from 6:30 to 7:45 in Meeting Room C 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

Four days out: Crabapple Fest, Saturday, 10 to 5. It goes on rain or shine. Crabapple Road closes between Mayfield Road and the Heritage Walk roundabout at 10 a.m. Friday for setup and reopens around 10 p.m. Saturday. Free shuttles run about every 20 minutes from four lots on Birmingham Highway, and accessible parking is at the Crabapple Government Center on Broadwell Road. Our fest guide lists every lot.

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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