Several police officers arrested for using controversial Flock AI license plate reader system to stalk romantic partners, says report — investigators have unearthed at least 18 such cases in the US over recent years

At least 18 police officers across the United States have been arrested or fired for abusing Flock Safety's AI-powered license plate reader network to stalk romantic partners and ex-partners, according to an investigative report by 404 Media. The cases span multiple states including Florida, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, and Kansas, revealing a pattern of systemic misuse that privacy advocates argue represents only the tip of a much larger iceberg.

The Flock Safety Surveillance Network

Flock Safety operates a vast network of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras mounted on poles, traffic lights, and police vehicles across thousands of jurisdictions. The system captures every passing vehicle's plate, location, and timestamp, creating a searchable database of vehicle movements that 140,000 monthly active users — primarily law enforcement — can query in real time. Unlike traditional ALPR systems that retain data for limited periods, Flock's network retains data for 30 days by default and allows sharing across agency boundaries, creating what critics describe as a de facto national vehicle tracking system without federal oversight.

The company markets its technology as a force multiplier for solving crimes, citing recoveries of stolen vehicles and apprehension of wanted suspects. However, the system's ease of access — officers can query plates from patrol car laptops or smartphones with minimal audit trails — has created fertile ground for abuse.

Case Study: Officer Jarmarus Brown

The 404 Media investigation centers on the case of Jarmarus Brown, an Orange City, Florida police officer who accessed his ex-girlfriend's license plate data over 100 times while on duty. Brown's colleagues noticed the unusual query volume and confronted him; he acknowledged the behavior and promised to stop but continued accessing the system. When internal affairs eventually investigated, Brown admitted he had been "dumb" and blamed emotional distress.

The investigation revealed a broader pattern of controlling behavior: Brown reportedly demanded his girlfriend remain on FaceTime during work hours and secretly placed an Apple AirTag in her wallet to track her movements. This case exemplifies how ALPR access combines with consumer tracking technology to enable multi-layered surveillance of intimate partners.

A Nationwide Pattern of Abuse

Brown's case is far from isolated. The 404 Media report documents similar abuses in Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, and Kansas. In each instance, officers exploited Flock's system to monitor (ex)partners' movements for months or years before detection. Most cases came to light only when victims discovered the surveillance through public records requests or private investigations — not through internal police auditing.

"What we see on the surface is almost certainly a vast underreporting of the overall abuse," the 404 Media report states. Only the most egregious cases resulting in termination or arrest trigger formal investigations that document the underlying misuse. Many departments lack automated audit systems that would flag unusual query patterns, such as repeated lookups of the same plate by a single officer outside investigative contexts.

Industry Response and Regulatory Gaps

Flock Safety maintains that abuse is "rare" relative to its 140,000 monthly active users and emphasizes that its terms of service prohibit personal use. The company has actively fought lawsuits and legislative efforts to impose warrant requirements for ALPR queries. Several states have considered legislation requiring judicial oversight for historical location queries, but law enforcement lobbying has largely stalled these efforts.

Critics argue that the current framework — voluntary compliance with minimal technical safeguards — is insufficient. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU have long warned that ALPR networks create "pervasive location tracking" incompatible with Fourth Amendment protections. The HaveIBeenFlocked.com website, created by transparency advocates, allows individuals to check if their plate appears in Flock query logs obtained through public records requests, though Flock has reportedly attempted to have the site taken down.

Implications for Digital Privacy

This scandal illuminates a broader tension in modern policing: powerful surveillance tools deployed with minimal oversight inevitably attract misuse. The Flock cases demonstrate how AI-enhanced surveillance infrastructure, once built, creates persistent temptations for personal abuse that policy alone cannot prevent. Technical safeguards — automated audit trails, query justification requirements, real-time anomaly detection — may be necessary complements to legal frameworks.

For the public, the revelations underscore that vehicle movements are being tracked at scale by systems originally sold as crime-fighting tools. As ALPR networks expand and integrate with other surveillance technologies — facial recognition, drone footage, cell-site simulators — the potential for both institutional and individual misuse grows exponentially. The Flock abuse cases may represent an early warning of what unchecked surveillance infrastructure enables when accountability mechanisms lag behind technological capability.