Police Misusing Surveillance to Track Romantic Partners? The ALPR Abuse Cases Raising Alarms
The short version: The Chicago Justice Project spotlights police officers abusing ALPR access to track romantic partners, proving these systems are surveillance tools waiting to be exploited.
Our Take
Credit to the Chicago Justice Project for digging into a problem we keep hammering on: ALPR abuse isn't hypothetical, it's documented. When a cop can run a plate to "investigate crime" but also to check up on an ex or a current partner, the technology stops being a public safety tool and becomes a personal surveillance weapon. No warrant, no oversight, just a badge and a login.
This is the core danger of networks like Flock Safety — the audit trails and "policy safeguards" departments tout are only as good as the humans enforcing them, and history shows those humans include jealous exes with arrest powers. Every camera added to the grid is another opportunity for this kind of misuse, whether it's stalking a partner, doing favors for a friend, or feeding data to agencies with no business having it.
If there's a Flock camera near you, you deserve to know it exists. Check our map and see what's already watching your street, then head to take action for tools to push back on your local government.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Chicago Justice Project, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.