Flock Exposed - Police Retaliation Against Critics
Op-Ed Writer Tracked By Police
A Kansas man, Canyen Ashworth, published a newspaper column criticizing the Lenexa, Kansas police department and local ICE operations. The same day the piece ran, Lenexa police began investigating him, and internal emails later showed his license plate was tracked using automated license plate reader cameras.
Source: American Civil Liberties Union
Navy Veteran Tracked Over 100 Times After Filming a Stop
Napoleon Jones, a Navy veteran in Sussex, Wisconsin, lawfully recorded a traffic stop he witnessed. In the weeks that followed, Waukesha County Sheriff's Office personnel searched Flock cameras for his vehicle more than 100 times, including searches made by one of the deputies involved in his own later arrest. He has filed a federal lawsuit alleging retaliation.
Norfolk Residents Tracked Over 500 Times
A retired veteran and a co-plaintiff in Norfolk, Virginia were tracked by the city's 176-camera Flock network more than 500 times over a few months. They are now suing the city, alleging the tracking amounts to a Fourth Amendment violation and a warrantless mass surveillance dragnet.
Reporter Followed and Pulled Over Filming Cameras
An investigative reporter documenting the installation of Flock cameras in Milton, Georgia was reported to police by a Flock installation worker, who described the reporter's car and appearance to dispatch. Officers pulled the reporter over and held him for roughly 17 minutes despite him identifying himself as press.
Source: InvestigateTV / Atlanta News First
Police Chief Arrested for Using Cameras to Stalk
Braselton, Georgia Police Chief Michael Steffman resigned and was arrested by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on stalking and harassment charges after being accused of using the town's own Flock cameras to track private citizens, including an ex-partner, hundreds of times.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congressman Flagged and Tracked to His Own Home
U.S. Representative Marlin Stutzman of Indiana was pulled over in a traffic stop aided by Flock cameras that tracked his vehicle to his home. He has since called the technology "invasive" and unconstitutional, and is pursuing federal legislation to limit its use.
Woman Handcuffed After Criticizing Flock at City Hall
Springfield, Missouri resident Mia Heider stepped up to speak against the city's Flock contract during a public comment period. Her microphone was cut off mid-sentence, and a police officer handcuffed her and issued a citation as she was removed from the meeting.
Resident Tracked After Speaking at a Town Meeting
An investigation found that a resident who spoke up at a local town meeting had his license plate searched by Flock cameras afterward, with court documents showing searches conducted far outside the officers' own jurisdiction. Flock told reporters it was "aware of 15 incidents of abuse," a figure critics say the system's design makes impossible to verify.
Source: 404 Media, republished by Yahoo News
Company Sent Legal Threats to Citizen Watchdogs
Flock Safety sent a cease-and-desist letter through a law firm to Will Freeman, creator of the citizen-run camera-mapping project DeFlock, attempting to shut the site down. Freeman had to obtain representation from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to fight the legal threat and keep the project online.
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Council Members Targeted at Their Own Homes
Salt Lake City Council members considering new rules on license-plate-reader-style cameras reported being targeted with intimidation at their own homes as they weighed the issue, illustrating how heated and personal the fight over this technology has become on all sides.
Questions to Ask Your Town
Does our department have a written policy that bars officers from searching license plate data on anyone for personal, political, or retaliatory reasons?
Who audits search logs, how often, and is that audit made public?
What happens to an officer found to have searched a critic's, journalist's, or protester's plate without a legitimate case number attached?
Can a resident find out, on request, whether their own plate has been searched and why?
Does our town's contract or policy protect people who speak at public meetings, file records requests, or organize against this technology from being targeted through it?
This page will be updated as more factual sources become available.