Flock cameras spark critics and vandals. What’s going on?
License plate readers have been attacked nationwide, and a growing number of cities have abandoned their use of the controversial police technology.
A New York law enforcement officer is facing criminal charges after officials say she abused Flock Safety cameras over an almost two-year period to spy on nearly a half-dozen people, including an ex-girlfriend.
Laurie Moore, 47, a 13-year veteran with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, was arrested on Sept. 9 for allegedly conducting more than 4,000 unauthorized searches involving five acquaintances using the company’s system, which tracks vehicles using automated license plate reader cameras across the nation.
During a Sept. 9 news conference, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said deputies arrested Moore, a senior investigator with the agency’s criminal investigation unit, earlier in the day.
Apple told reporters that the agency on Sept. 4 learned about the alleged crimes, which began in 2024, after an outside source prompted the investigation.
“This is a gut punch,” Apple told reporters. “I’ve long been a strong defender of (license plate reader) technology because I’ve seen firsthand the good that it can do. It’s helped us solve heinous cases from murders, organized retail theft, burglaries that otherwise might have gone unsolved.”
The sheriff said Moore used the system “with no lawful purpose” to track her ex’s vehicle at least 3,000 times and run four additional plates hundreds of times each.
She was placed on administrative leave, charged with falsifying business records and official misconduct, both misdemeanors, and ordered to appear in court on Sept. 24.
It was not immediately clear whether Moore had obtained legal representation in the case.
“What happened here is a breach of that trust. And for that, I’m truly sorry,” Apple said. “But let me be clear. It also demonstrates that when somebody abuses that trust, we’ll hold them accountable.”
What do Flock Safety cameras do?
Flock’s AI-powered surveillance cameras track, scan and preserve license plate numbers, feeding them into a searchable database that law enforcement and others can access.
The license plate readers have drawn scrutiny from Americans across the political spectrum since the company launched more than a decade ago.
The American Civil Liberty Union estimates the company has installed about 120,000 cameras across the nation.
According to the ACLU, the cameras have been used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to find immigrants, by Kansas police to find a man who wrote a critical op-ed and by Colorado police to wrongfully accuse a woman of theft.
A recently published report by USA TODAY examining Flock Safety audit logs from 124 law enforcement agencies across the country revealed numerous cases of potentially improper or illegal use of the technology, prompting a flurry of arrests, firings and investigations. The story came about two weeks after Flock changed its policies for law enforcement, with CEO Garrett Langley saying police misusing the system “will get caught.”
Albany County District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon, who also spoke during the news conference, called the system “invaluable” and said it’s worth protecting.
In addition to helping police “catch a lot of bad guys,” the cameras help find missing children and give families answers “they otherwise would not have,” Kindlon said. “Which is exactly why we cannot be let it be used in any other way,”
Contributing: Irene Wright, USA TODAY; Lyra Bordelon, Staunton News Leader, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.