Flock Exposed - Arrests and Firings
The company sells this technology to police departments on the promise that access will be controlled and audited.
Here are documented cases of officers and personnel who used that access to track people in their own personal lives - not to fight crime. Where a case resulted only in firing and not criminal charges, that is noted, since accountability for officers misusing this technology is inconsistent from department to department.
Kentucky - Officer Asad Zahir arrested after allegedly tracking his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times
A Shively, Kentucky police officer, Asad Zahir, was arrested after authorities said he used the Flock Safety license plate reader system to track his ex-girlfriend over 2,000 times. His activity was flagged by a new audit tool, and he faces criminal charges.
Source: CNN, August 26, 2026; MotorBiscuit; Attack of the Fanboy
Florida - Officer Jarmarus Brown arrested after allegedly running his ex-girlfriend's plate at least 69 times
Jarmarus Brown, an Orange City, Florida police officer, ran his ex-girlfriend's license plate through the Flock ALPR lookup database at least 69 times over the summer of 2024. Brown was arrested and charged in 2025.
Source: 404 Media; Institute for Justice
Georgia - Five Albany police officers arrested and fired after an internal audit
An internal audit by the Albany Police Department uncovered misuse of Flock camera access, leading to the firing of five officers - Tytianna Davis, Jade Jackson, Nicholas Richardson, Brittney Smith, and Issac Whitus - who were then arrested and charged by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation with misuse of license plate data and violation of their oath of office.
Source: CBS Atlanta; WALB; Police1
Georgia - Three Gwinnett County officers arrested, one also charged with battery and stalking
Authorities arrested Gwinnett County officer Renee Downer, charging her with simple battery and stalking in addition to Flock-related misuse charges. Two other former officers, Derric Holmes and Matthew Lau, were also arrested and charged with misuse of license plate data.
Source: CBS Atlanta
South Carolina - Corporal Kareem Lynch and Officer Sebastian Echeverry fired in Greer for tracking people in their personal lives, then accused of lying about it
Greer, South Carolina fired Corporal Kareem Lynch and Officer Sebastian Echeverry after the city's Flock "AI Audit Assistance" tool flagged that the two had used the cameras to track people in their personal lives - including Lynch searching the tag of a fellow officer with whom he'd had a prior personal conflict, and Echeverry using "deceitful and false" justifications to search the plates of several citizens. The city said the officers violated department policy on the technology; separation paperwork later released showed the firings were also tied to the officers lying about their Flock use during the investigation. No criminal charges have been publicly reported in this case.
Source: Fox Carolina; Washington Times, August 18, 2026; Post and Courier; Newsweek; FITSNews
South Carolina - Former Deputy Richard Mann and former Communications Supervisor Lauren Wilkinson investigated for Flock misuse
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigated allegations of Flock misuse against Upstate South Carolina personnel, including former Greenville County Sheriff's Office Deputy Richard Mann and former Communications Supervisor Lauren Wilkinson, who were found to have misused Flock camera access in violation of department general orders.
Source: Fox Carolina, "Timeline: SLED investigates allegations of Flock misuse against Upstate officers," August 21, 2026
Wisconsin - Menasha officer charged with misconduct in office after tracking an ex-partner
An officer in Menasha, Wisconsin was placed on leave and charged with misconduct in office after his ex-partner filed a complaint with another police department alleging he had used Flock cameras to track her.
Source: Cybernews, "Officers use Flock cameras to stalk women they know personally"
North Carolina - Officer Tonya Baker indicted after being charged with misusing the Flock system
Tonya Baker, a now-former officer with the Wrightsville Beach Police Department, was arrested on September 9, 2026, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. A grand jury in New Hanover County indicted her on a charge related to misusing the Flock camera and ALPR system.
Source: WLOS, "North Carolina police officer charged with misusing Flock camera: SBI"
New York - Senior Investigator Laurie Moore charged with official misconduct and falsifying records after a reporter's questions
Laurie Moore, a senior investigator with the Albany County Sheriff's Office in New York, was charged with official misconduct and falsifying business records after a USA Today reporter asked about her frequent searches of four license plates. The case is notable because it was press scrutiny, not an internal audit, that triggered the charges.
Source: Yahoo News / USA Today, "New police arrests, firings for Flock misuse after our investigation"
California - San Jose officer fired for handing a domestic violence victim's location to her accused abuser, but not criminally charged
A San Jose police officer used his personal phone to access the city's Flock camera system off-duty and shared a domestic violence victim's vehicle location with his cousin, who was the suspect accused of abusing her; the cousin used that information to track her down. Police Chief Paul Joseph fired the officer, saying, "When an officer violates the public's trust this severely, my responsibility is clear: that person cannot remain in a position of police authority, and they cannot wear the San Jose badge." The officer was not criminally charged because California law currently has gaps that exempt unauthorized ALPR access from criminal penalties; the case was instead referred to the state's police licensing commission for possible decertification.
Source: ABC7 San Francisco; KRON4/Fox40; Rankiteo, September 2026
Illinois - Officer and Holiday Hills Police Chief William Copp charged after nearly 250 searches tracking former partners
William C. Copp, a part-time Prairie Grove, Illinois officer who also served as police chief of nearby Holiday Hills, was charged with official misconduct after McHenry County prosecutors said he conducted nearly 250 unauthorized Flock and state database searches to track former romantic partners and at least one of their new partners - in one case searching an individual's plate approximately 140 times. One victim said in a petition for a restraining order, "He knows everything about me." Copp was arrested on a warrant during a traffic stop conducted by his own fellow Prairie Grove officers. He has pleaded not guilty and faces potential prison time and the loss of his police certification.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, "Flock license plate readers turn Chicago suburbs into ground zero for bitter fight over surveillance," August 27, 2026; WBEZ Chicago; Shaw Local; ABC7 Chicago; Hoodline
Wisconsin - Kenosha County Deputy Frank McGrath charged with two felonies after using Flock to track a fellow deputy he was dating
Frank D. McGrath, a Kenosha County, Wisconsin Sheriff's Office deputy, resigned in late December after an internal investigation found he had used the department's Flock system, along with a separate live-GPS squad-car tracking tool, to monitor a fellow deputy he was romantically involved with - misusing the GPS tool roughly 40 times against the same person. A restraining-order petition from the victim stated that McGrath had driven past her home in Waukegan, Illinois the same day he ran her vehicle through Flock, then questioned her about who had access to her car and where she or another person was heading. Court records show texts in which McGrath told the victim his actions had "gotten out of hand" and that he had "lost control." He was placed on the Kenosha County District Attorney's Brady List in March 2026, and in August 2026 was formally charged with two felony counts of misconduct in public office, following a John Doe petition filed by a local editor five months earlier. He faces up to three years in prison.
Source: Kenosha County Eye, August 2026; WISN/MSN; TMJ4; 715 Newsroom; Fox47
Georgia - Former Braselton Police Chief Michael Steffman arrested for stalking after allegedly tracking his ex-girlfriend roughly 600 times, later found dead by suicide before trial
Michael Steffman, police chief of Braselton, Georgia, announced his retirement and resigned one evening in November 2025, then was arrested by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation hours later. He was charged with Violation of Oath by Public Officer, Stalking, Harassing Communications, and multiple counts of Misuse of Automated License Plate Recognition Systems, following a multi-month investigation into his tracking of his ex-girlfriend, Marci Bakely, a single mother in Jefferson, Georgia, and her teenage daughter - allegedly using the Flock system roughly 600 times. He was released from the Jackson County jail on 13,000 dollars bond. Before the case could go to trial, Steffman was found dead in his home in April 2026, in what officials said was a suicide.
Source: Georgia Bureau of Investigation press release, November 19, 2025; Washington Post, August 2, 2026; Fox 5 Atlanta; CBS Atlanta; WSB-TV; Police1; 11Alive; AJC
Georgia - Three Bibb County sheriff's deputies arrested on stalking and oath-of-office charges after separate personal-relationship searches
Coznavian Stubbs (45), Toni Cierra Lewis (32), and Joseph Marquee Callaway (37), all Bibb County, Georgia sheriff's deputies, were arrested and booked into the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center on August 10, 2026, after an internal audit flagged their Flock searches. The sheriff's office said the three cases were separate, each involving a person the deputy had a personal relationship with at the time. All three were charged with at least one felony count of stalking - one deputy faces three counts - and all were also charged with violation of oath by a public officer.
Source: GPB News; 13WMAZ; CBS Atlanta; WSB-TV; 41NBC; Cybernews; AJC
Kansas - Former Sedgwick Police Chief Lee Nygaard loses his license after tracking his ex-girlfriend's plate 164 times
Lee Nygaard, police chief of Sedgwick, Kansas since September 2020, used Flock license plate readers to run his ex-girlfriend's tags 164 times and her new boyfriend's tag 64 times between June and October of 2023, at one point logging the searches as a missing-person investigation. He also followed the ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend out of town in his police vehicle. He resigned, and the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training later revoked his law enforcement license.
Source: KAKE; Wichita Eagle; KWCH; WKRC; EzeRoad; Yahoo News
Nationwide - Washington Post investigation finds at least 50 officers charged or accused of using Flock and similar systems to stalk women, 46 cases involving Flock specifically
A Washington Post analysis of police and court records by reporters Drew Harwell, Douglas MacMillan, and Aaron Schaffer, published August 2 and 3, 2026, found at least 50 law enforcement officers nationwide charged with or accused of misusing automated license plate reader systems for unauthorized surveillance of intimate partners, ex-partners, or women they wanted to meet - a category distinct from GPS trackers or stalkerware because the officer does not need to install anything or touch the victim's device at all. In 26 of those cases, investigators and prosecutors concluded officers used the technology specifically to spy on wives, girlfriends, exes, their exes' new partners, or women they sought to approach. Forty-six of the 50 cases involved Flock's system specifically. Flock told the Post it would "soon be announcing better filters and tools to stop abuse before it happens," and has previously said misusing officers represent only a small fraction of its 140,000 active users. Flock CEO Garrett Langley later publicly apologized following the reporting.
Source: Washington Post, "How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking," August 2, 2026; Slashdot; TechTimes; Salon; 19th News; CBS News
Why Most of These End in Firing, Not Conviction
As these cases show, officers are frequently fired and sometimes criminally charged for personal misuse of Flock access, but a completed criminal conviction is rare in current public reporting. Several cases - including the San Jose case above - were not prosecuted at all because state law has not caught up to the technology: unauthorized access to an ALPR database is not always a crime, even when the consequences for the victim are severe. This is itself part of the case for stronger local oversight: internal firing and decertification are not a substitute for consistent criminal accountability, and neither currently exists in most states. The sheer number of named individuals above - and the fact that most of these cases only came to light because of outside press investigation rather than internal audits - underscores that this is a nationwide, structural problem with how this technology is overseen, not a handful of isolated bad actors.
This page will be updated as more factual sources become available.