5 APD officers fired over misuse of license plate reader technology, department says
The short version: Albany PD fired five officers for misusing license plate readers, proof that ALPR abuse isn't hypothetical—it's already happening inside departments that promised oversight.
Our Take
Credit to WALB News 10 for digging into this one. Five officers in Albany gone, and the GBI brought in to see if the misuse crossed into criminal territory — that's not a minor training hiccup, that's a department admitting its people used mass-surveillance tech for reasons that had nothing to do with public safety. Every time a city council approves Flock cameras, they're told the data is locked down, audited, only pulled for real investigations. Stories like this are exactly why we don't take those promises at face value.
The frustrating part is we rarely get details on what the officers actually did — stalking an ex, running plates for personal favors, selling lookups, who knows. Departments love to announce the firings as proof the "system worked," but the system only worked after the damage was already done. ALPR networks generate a permanent, searchable record of where everyone drives, and that record is only as trustworthy as the person with login access on any given shift.
This is why we keep pushing people to know what's watching their own streets. Check our camera map to see if Flock or similar readers are already logging your plate, and if you want to push back on unchecked deployment in your town, our take-action page has concrete steps for getting answers from local officials before the next misuse story breaks.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WALB News 10, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.