Savannah officer fired for sharing Flock login with ICE agent husband

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The Savannah Police Department confirmed one of its officers, Amber Harpe, was fired for giving her Flock camera system login to her husband, who is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed it is investigating the matter because of its agent’s involvement.

For background on these Flock misuse cases, click here.

Officer’s hearing canceled

WTOC reached out to the Savannah Police Department months ago asking for information on Amber Harpe and the other terminated SPD employees but did not hear back. WTOC also reached out to the city of Savannah and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation asking whether ICE is involved, but did not receive a yes or no answer.

On Thursday, WTOC attempted to obtain documents another media outlet had reported on. WTOC called, emailed and traveled to the Savannah Police records department building. An employee there said nobody in the office could help.

Information about other employees was obtained through civil hearings held by the city. Harpe canceled her hearing, which had been scheduled for Tuesday.

According to documents, Harpe and her husband said the searches he conducted were for ICE targets specifically. A majority of his searches were for South Carolina plates.

WTOC reached out to Savannah city leaders asking about their stance on sharing Flock information with ICE, and whether this termination was any different from other terminations related to Flock misuse.

A spokesperson responded with the following:

“Unauthorized access to police technology by anyone is a breach of Savannah Police Department policy and public trust. In this case, SPD determined that department policy was violated and terminated the employee. An outside law enforcement agency’s investigative purpose does not, by itself, authorize access to SPD’s system.”

Department responds

A spokesperson for the Savannah Police Department provided a statement:

“All four of the officers were found to have violated policy. That said, GBI choose not to charge Amber Harpe with criminal charges. You will have to reach out to GBI on that matter, as it was their investigation. SPD does share credentials with different agencies, but ICE is not one of them. The list of those agencies will be available to the public when we launch of transparency portal.”

WTOC has previously reported the transparency portal was planned to open by the end of September.