A Kansas police chief tracked his ex-girlfriend’s car 164 times over four months. A Florida officer queried his girlfriend’s license plate 70 times in seven months, then sat outside her workplace in his patrol car. These aren’t isolated bad apples—they’re the documented edge of a surveillance system that’s spreading across jurisdictions nationwide.
How Flock Became a Backdoor Tracking Network
The same cameras designed to catch criminals are catching cops abusing their access to stalk romantic partners.
Flock Safety sells networks of automated license plate readers that capture every passing vehicle, storing location data and timestamps in searchable databases. Over 200 Wisconsin departments alone use the system, where individual officers log in with personal credentials to run queries. The problem? Those same login credentials work just as well for tracking an ex-wife’s movements as they do for investigating actual crimes.
The Numbers Tell a Disturbing Story
Civil rights groups have documented at least 18 cases of police using surveillance tech for personal stalking.
Orange City officer Jarmarus Brown ran his girlfriend’s plates 69 times, her mother’s 24 times, and her brother’s 15 times—all while placing an Apple AirTag in her wallet. When confronted, he called his actions “dumb” and blamed emotions. He got probation.
Former Milwaukee officer Josue Ayala allegedly tracked a woman and her ex-boyfriend over 170 times in two months before resigning ahead of misconduct charges. The Institute for Justice counts these among 18 documented cases since 2024, but that’s almost certainly an undercount.
Most Abuse Goes Undetected Until Someone Complains
Departments rarely audit their own systems, leaving victims to discover the surveillance themselves.
Many cases only surfaced after victims reported feeling stalked, not through proactive department monitoring. Some discovered the abuse through HaveIBeenFlocked.com, a site that compiles public records of plate searches so people can see if they’ve been tracked. Flock has reportedly tried multiple times to shut down such transparency tools.
When grassroots group Deflock Joplin obtained audit logs, they found one officer had run a single plate 395 times in 10 months—a pattern so obvious that the city fired him once it went public.
Your Commute Is Being Logged Whether You Know It or Not
The surveillance affects everyone, but accountability measures remain spotty at best.
Flock claims abuse is “rare” among its 140,000 monthly users and touts audit features as accountability safeguards. Civil liberties advocates argue the core problem isn’t technical—it’s structural. Without warrant requirements, putting location histories “in the hands of every officer” makes stalking predictable, not preventable.
You’re driving through an increasingly dense network of cameras that log your movements, and the only thing preventing misuse is individual officer restraint and department policies that often go unenforced. The surveillance state isn’t coming—it’s already here, running license plate queries from patrol cars while you grab coffee.
