Flock misuse, former Kenosha County deputy criminally charged | FOX6 News Milwaukee

Our Take

FOX6 News Milwaukee is reporting on something we've been warning about since day one: the person with the keys to the surveillance system is just as big a threat as the system itself. A former Kenosha County sheriff's deputy is now facing felony misconduct charges for allegedly misusing Flock Safety cameras and GPS tracking tools — not for investigating crime, but for something else entirely. Flock and local police departments love to tell the public these networks are tightly controlled and only used for 'legitimate law enforcement purposes.' This case says otherwise.

Every time Flock pitches a new ALPR contract to a city council, the sales pitch leans hard on audit logs, access controls, and policy guardrails. But policies on paper don't stop a badge-holder with access from turning a public safety tool into a personal stalking tool. That's the structural problem with blanket license plate surveillance: once the data exists and the access exists, abuse is a matter of when, not if. Wisconsin residents should be asking their own sheriff's departments who has access to this data, how often it's audited, and whether anyone is actually checking.

This is exactly why we built the map — so people can see how much of this infrastructure is already watching their daily movements, whether they asked for it or not. If you're in Wisconsin or anywhere else and want to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment in your community, our take-action page has concrete steps for getting answers from local officials before the next scandal breaks.