The Flock Investigator Was Allegedly Misusing Flock Too #policeaccountability #thinbluelies #bodycam
The short version: Milwaukee assigned a detective to probe Flock misuse who was himself allegedly running 20 unauthorized searches — exposed only because victims complained, not the department's audit system.
Our Take
Thin Blue Lies just surfaced a story that should make every city council member nervous about their Flock contract. Milwaukee PD tapped Detective Tehrangi Chapman to investigate another officer's alleged misuse of license plate reader data. Prosecutors now say Chapman had already run roughly 20 unauthorized searches on two people before he ever got that assignment. The department's own audit system didn't catch either officer. The victims had to come forward.
This is the pattern we keep seeing nationwide: vendors and police departments sell these networks on the promise of built-in accountability — audit logs, access controls, 'reasonable suspicion' policies. But a log nobody reviews until someone complains isn't oversight, it's a paper trail generated after the damage is done. If the person assigned to root out abuse is himself abusing the system, the audit trail was never a deterrent. It was decoration.
Every one of these cameras sits on public infrastructure, quietly building a searchable history of where you drive, when, and how often — accessible to anyone with a login and the willingness to lie about why they need it. Credit to Thin Blue Lies for digging through the court records on this one. If you want to see how many of these cameras are watching your own neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back, our take-action page has steps for getting answers from your local department.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Thin Blue Lies, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.