San Jose cop FIRED for using Flock cameras to help cousin

Our Take

Credit to KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco for surfacing this story, because it's exactly the kind of case Flock Safety and police departments would rather you never hear about. We're told these camera networks are for solving serious crimes, but here's an officer allegedly using department access, on a personal phone no less, to run plates for a family favor. That's not a hypothetical privacy risk anymore. That's a real person's movements pulled up and handed over outside any warrant, any court order, any real oversight.

The firing might look like the system working, but it only worked because someone got caught. Flock's own audit logs are the only reason we know about this, and audits are just paperwork unless departments actually review them and unless the public gets to see the results. Most communities that green-light these cameras have no idea how often internal misuse like this happens, because most agencies aren't handing these stories to reporters. This is what mission creep looks like in practice: a tool sold as objective and automated, run by people who bring their own agendas, grudges, and favors into the system.

If your town has Flock cameras, or is being pitched on installing them, this story is worth bringing to your city council. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your streets, and head to take action for tools to push back on unchecked surveillance before your local department has its own version of this story.