5 Police Officers Charged with Flock Stalking

Our Take

Credit to Creepy Farm for putting a spotlight on what is, frankly, the surveillance story that keeps getting buried: it's not just hackers or foreign adversaries who abuse these networks, it's the people who already have the badge and the login. We can't independently verify the specifics laid out in this video — the date stamped on the report is unusual and we have no corroborating court filings to point to — so treat the details as allegations until documented charges or records surface. But the underlying pattern described is exactly the kind of misuse watchdogs have warned about for years: once a department deploys Flock cameras, every officer with credentials has a tool that can track someone's daily movements without a warrant, and audit trails depend entirely on that department policing itself.

That's the core problem with automated license plate readers as a category, regardless of whether this particular case holds up. Flock markets these systems to cities as crime-fighting infrastructure, but the access logs, retention windows, and internal discipline processes vary wildly by jurisdiction, and most residents have no idea who can query their plate history or why. A stalking allegation involving sworn officers is a worst-case scenario, but it's a foreseeable one when you build a surveillance network first and bolt on accountability later.

If you want to know whether your own neighborhood is wired into this system, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment in your city, our take-action page has concrete steps for getting answers from local officials.