Flock camera misused by four officers

Our Take

ARC El Paso is circulating a TNND report on an incident that should worry anyone who thought ALPR data was locked down tight: a Flock camera was physically removed, its data breached, and the findings handed to reporters showing four officers allegedly misusing the system. Whether you see the hackers as vigilantes or vandals, the underlying story is the same one we keep covering — these cameras collect constant, searchable records on ordinary people's movements, and the access logs are only as trustworthy as the humans who can query them.

Flock and local agencies love to tout audit trails and 'authorized use only' policies, but audits only catch misuse after the fact, and usually only when someone forces the issue — in this case, literally by yanking the hardware off a pole. That's not oversight, that's a leak. If it takes a breach to surface officer misconduct, the official guardrails clearly aren't doing their job.

This is exactly why we track where these cameras live and push for real accountability instead of trusting self-reporting. Check our camera map to see what's watching your neighborhood, and hit take action if you want to push your city council for actual transparency instead of PR promises.