Are You Being "Flocked" by the Police

You may have seen them in the news or along highways and roads. Privacy invading Flock cameras – automated license plate readers (ALPR) - supposedly used for tracking the movements of criminals, from bank robbers to hit and run drivers. However, they can also be used for nefarious reasons.

The proliferation of police surveillance has led to abuses. One not-so-shocking common abuse is police officers using the camera networks to keep tabs on romantic interests, including current partners, exes, and even strangers who unwittingly caught their eye in public. An Institute for Justice review has identified officers allegedly abusing ALPR data this way. Most incidents came to light only after victims reported the officers’ behavior to other police via stalking laws.

Fourteen cases (the reported number) may not seem like many, but those are just the ones that got caught violating their authority… and the report only identified romantic interests. We can almost certainly assume there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of violations if all reasons for abuse are counted. Some cases get resolved internally, and ambiguous legal reasons are used to falsely explain away other unreported violations. Officers caught were generally charged with a crime and lost their jobs by resigning or getting fired.

As modern technology tests the limits of the Fourth Amendment, some communities are rethinking their use of Flock cameras and similar systems, with some ending them completely. I’d like to think concerns about privacy, security, and consistent government surveillance are driving these changes, but I doubt it. If government can spy, they will. They’ll just hide it better, such as inside traffic cones and portable construction toilets, which is an actual method already in use.

Michael Soyfer, an Institute for Justice attorney, stated, “The fundamental problem with these systems is that they place private information about people’s movements over time in the hands of every officer [without the safeguard of a warrant].”

At least 6 of the 14 officers caught used the system over 100 times each to track romantic interests, and worse, people connected to them - such as a new boyfriend. One officer from the Milwaukee Police Department allegedly used the department’s system to track his romantic partner and one of her partner’s exes, nearly 180 times over a two-month period.

In a separate instance, a sheriff’s deputy allegedly tracked and pulled over a woman he met while providing security on a TV stage.

The IJ report didn’t list the number of violations for every officer caught, but of those that were listed, the 14 cases involved at least 600 abuses.

Last year the Institute for Justice launched the Plate Privacy Project, a joint effort to push back against no-warrant mass surveillance through litigation, legislation, activism, and media.

Have you been “flocked” by the police? You might be able to find out at HaveIBeenFlocked.com. If not listed, you can file a FOIA/public records request with police departments and sheriff's offices in your area asking for Flock audit logs. Of course, insinuating government may be violating your rights, just may add you as a someone to be targeted.

Source used: Institute for Justice