Former Katy Police Department officer facing charges involving misuse of Flock cameras

Our Take

Every time Flock Safety sells a city council on its camera network, the pitch includes a promise: access is restricted, logged, and audited, so misuse just can't happen. FOX 26 Houston's Rashi Vats reports that a former Katy PD officer is now facing charges tied to exactly that kind of misuse. We don't know yet precisely what he did with the system, and we won't speculate beyond what's been reported, but the fact that an officer got caught at all should tell you something — these databases are being queried far more often than any sting operation or oversight hearing.

This is the uncomfortable core of ALPR surveillance: the technology doesn't just watch the public, it hands a searchable log of everyone's movements to whoever has a login. Policy promises and audit trails only work if someone is actually watching the watchers, and in most departments nobody is. One bad actor with credentials can turn a 'public safety tool' into a personal tracking system, whether that's stalking an ex, running plates for a favor, or something worse. The Katy case isn't an isolated glitch — it's a preview of what happens anywhere these cameras go up without real accountability.

If there's a Flock camera reader in your town, you deserve to know who's watching it and why. Check our camera map to see what's been deployed near you, and visit our take-action page if you want to push your local officials for the kind of transparency that might have caught this sooner.