At Least 50 Officers Accused of Using Plate Readers to Stalk People

Our Take

Verified Privacy VPN just did the unglamorous work of counting: at least 50 officers in 26 states have now been accused of or charged with using license plate reader access to track people in their personal lives. That number isn't a glitch in the system — it is the system. Flock and its competitors keep selling ALPR networks as crime-fighting tools, but every camera is also a backdoor into a stranger's movements, and the badge doesn't make someone immune to jealousy, obsession, or plain old abuse of power.

What makes this especially galling is how little friction there is between "officer with login credentials" and "officer stalking an ex-partner or a woman who turned him down." These networks log where you go, when, and how often, then hand that history to anyone with access and motive. Audits are sparse, penalties are inconsistent, and most of these cases only surface because someone got caught, not because the system caught them. For every confirmed case, how many go unnoticed because no one was looking?

This is exactly why we keep pushing people to find out what's watching their own neighborhood. Check our camera map to see if Flock or similar ALPR hardware is clocking your daily routine, and if you want to push back on unchecked deployment in your town, our take-action page has the tools to get started. Credit to Verified Privacy VPN for tracking these numbers — the rest of us need to keep demanding accountability before the next name gets added to that list.