Navy Veteran Flocked hundreds of times after filing a complaint against the Waukesha Sheriff
The short version: A Navy veteran's complaint against a Wisconsin deputy allegedly led to hundreds of retaliatory Flock searches on his plate, per Orwell Day's reporting.
Our Take
This is the nightmare scenario critics of ALPR networks have been warning about for years: a database built to find stolen cars or violent fugitives, instead turned into a tool for settling scores. According to the Orwell Day channel's reporting, Napoleon Jones filed a complaint after an arrest that ended with no charges, and what followed — per his federal lawsuit filed December 1 — was a lieutenant allegedly running hundreds of Flock searches on his vehicle. If true, that's not public safety. That's a badge used as a weapon, and a license plate reader used as the barrel.
Flock Safety and its law enforcement customers always sell these systems on the promise of audit trails and 'reasonable suspicion' search policies. This case, if the allegations hold up, shows exactly how thin that promise is in practice. Nobody polices the policer who decides to type your plate into the system out of spite. The only reason this surfaced at all is because it came out in litigation discovery — meaning for every Jones who sues and digs it up, there are almost certainly others who never find out their plate was quietly searched hundreds of times by someone with a grudge.
Credit to Orwell Day for surfacing a case that deserves far more attention than it's gotten. If you want to know whether a camera like this is watching your own street, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment in your town, see our take-action resources.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Orwell Day, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.