POLICE OFFICERS CAUGHT USING FLOCK CAMERAS TO STALK EXES! #flockcameras #uspolitics #usnews

Our Take

Credit to Dave Neal for surfacing yet another example of the same problem watchdogs keep flagging: once a nationwide license plate reader network exists, the people with login credentials don't always use it for its advertised purpose. Flock Safety and local police departments love to pitch these cameras as tools for catching violent offenders, but "officer looks up an ex's location history" is a far more common failure mode than the marketing admits, and it's happened in enough jurisdictions that it's a pattern, not a fluke.

This matters because the entire system runs on trust with almost no real-time, independent verification. Audit logs exist, but they're usually reviewed only after a complaint, if at all, and the officer doing the searching is often the same person deciding whether the search looks reasonable. A camera network built to find kidnappers and carjackers becomes, in the wrong hands, a tool for surveilling an ex, a neighbor, or a journalist — and the people being tracked have no way of knowing it's happening until it's too late.

If you want to see how dense this coverage is getting in your own area, check our camera map, and if you'd rather do something about it than just read about it, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back on unchecked ALPR access in your city.