50 Officers Accused of Plate Reader Stalking
The short version: A new report tallied by Verified Privacy VPN finds at least 50 officers accused of misusing license plate reader data — including one who ran 31 searches on a single woman under fake 'motor vehicle infraction' labels.
Our Take
Verified Privacy VPN (vp.net) just put a number on something we've been warning about for years: the "audit log" that Flock Safety and police departments love to point to as proof of accountability is only as honest as the person typing in the reason. Fifty officers now charged or accused of abusing ALPR access, one guy running 31 lookups on a single woman and logging every one as a routine "motor vehicle infraction" — that's not a technical glitch, that's a surveillance tool built with zero real friction against personal misuse.
The fact that Flock's own system shows up in 46 of those 50 cases should end the myth that this technology is just about catching stolen cars and Amber Alerts. When a network of always-on cameras logs everyone's movements by default, the only thing standing between that data and an ex-boyfriend with a badge is an honor system. History, and now this report, says the honor system fails constantly and gets discovered rarely.
Credit to Verified Privacy VPN for compiling these cases in one place — go watch their breakdown and read the sourcing at vp.net. Then check our map to see how many of these cameras are already watching your own neighborhood, and hit take action if you want to push back before your local department becomes case number 51.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Verified Privacy VPN (vp.net), published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.