Police Used Flock Cameras to Stalk Women

Our Take

In Episode 85 of Liberty Lens, Mike ter Maat and Big John walk through a problem we've been flagging for a while: a system sold as a crime-fighting tool is only as trustworthy as the officers who have access to it. Flock cameras don't just flag stolen vehicles — they log where every passing car goes, building a searchable location history on millions of people who've done nothing wrong. Once that data exists, misuse is a matter of when, not if.

This isn't hypothetical hand-wringing. Departments across the country have had to admit officers ran plates for personal reasons — checking up on exes, partners, or people they had no legitimate investigative interest in. Flock's audit logs are supposed to catch this, but logs only matter if someone is actually reviewing them, and most agencies have shown little appetite for that kind of self-policing. A camera network that can track any car, anywhere, anytime is a stalking tool first and a crime-fighting tool second if the people running it aren't held to real accountability.

We appreciate ter Maat and Big John putting a spotlight on this angle, because it's exactly the kind of mission creep that gets buried under press releases about solved car thefts. If you want to see how dense this surveillance net has gotten in your own town, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment locally, our take-action page has concrete steps.