Five More Cops Charged for Abusing Flock Cameras Amid So Many Similar Scandals That We Can’t Even Keep Track

Police abuse of AI-integrated surveillance cameras is becoming a widespread issue, with recent unsealed court documents revealing five Indianapolis police officers charged for unlawfully using the department's automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). Among those accused is officer Jonathan Schultz, an 18-year veteran, who allegedly used 300 cameras provided by the ALPR company Flock to stalk multiple women, including his ex-wife and a woman he met at a workout class in 2023.

This follows similar scandals in North Carolina, where the Franklin County Sheriff's Office fired a detective for using Flock cameras to track the movements of a single private citizen, and San Jose, California, which is considering stricter regulations on police access to ALPRs after an officer was dismissed for sharing Flock data with a relative linked to a domestic violence case.

The proliferation of Flock's surveillance network, now exceeding 140,000 ALPRs across the United States, has led to a corresponding increase in instances of police abuse. The Institute for Justice has documented at least 244 cases of police abuse involving Flock cameras, with this figure likely to rise as more scandals emerge. Police have abused ALPRs in a myriad of ways, from stalking romantic interests and retaliating against critics to conducting unauthorized searches on behalf of immigration agents, monitoring activists, harassing coworkers, locating victims of domestic abuse on behalf of the suspected abusers, surveilling Muslims driving to mosques, and even using the cameras as a means of passing time when bored.

Senior investigative researcher Beryl Lipton from the Electronic Frontier Foundation highlights that the systemic nature of ALPR abuse is a result of the interconnectedness of Flock's network, which enables abuse to take place across state lines. Lipton emphasizes that despite the long history of ALPR use, the current level of abuse is unprecedented due to the expanded scope of these devices.

As public anger directed towards Flock grows, it is crucial to recognize that the responsibility for these harmful practices lies with the police officers who exploit these tools for their own gain.