Pasadena police sergeant resigns while under investigation over alleged misuse of Flock camera

Our Take

Every time Flock Safety sells a city council on its camera network, the pitch is the same: strict access controls, audit logs, only trained personnel, only for legitimate investigations. Then a story like this one from KPRC 2's Click2Houston team drops, and the pitch falls apart. A Pasadena sergeant reportedly used the department's own plate-reader system to track a fellow cop, and the only reason we know is that he resigned while under investigation — not because some airtight audit process caught it and made it public on its own.

This is the recurring problem with ALPR networks: the technology doesn't just watch the public, it watches whoever the person with login access wants to watch. Departments love to tout audit trails as a safeguard, but audits only matter if someone's actually reviewing them and willing to hold an officer accountable when the target is a colleague instead of a stranger. A quiet resignation isn't accountability — it's a department managing its own liability while the underlying question of who else has been tracked, and why, goes unanswered.

Cases like this are exactly why we keep pushing for real transparency around who runs these systems and who's watching the watchers. Check our map to see if Flock cameras are logging your plate right now, and hit up take-action for ways to push your local council on audit access and public reporting requirements.