Second MPD officer under investigation for Flock camera misuse | FOX6 News Milwaukee

Our Take

Credit to FOX6 News Milwaukee for staying on this story. When one Flock misuse case turns into two, it stops looking like a fluke and starts looking like a pattern that departments would rather not examine too closely. Milwaukee PD has access to a system that can log where a car, and the person driving it, has been — and now we're learning that more than one officer may have used that power for something other than legitimate policing.

This is the exact failure mode critics of ALPR networks have warned about for years: these systems run on an honor code. Flock's own marketing leans hard on 'audit trails' and 'accountability,' but an audit trail only matters if someone is actually checking it, and if the checking only happens after a tip or a lawsuit, the deterrent isn't real. A second officer under investigation means the first case wasn't contained — it means nobody was watching closely enough the first time, either.

Every one of these stories is a reminder that the data exists whether or not it's being abused today, and that oversight is catching up after the fact rather than preventing misuse in the first place. If you want to see how dense this surveillance net already is in your own city, check our camera map, and if you'd rather do something about it than just read about it, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing your local council on policy and oversight.