Indiana officer arrested for hundreds of Flock camera searches of wife's plate
An Indiana police officer has been arrested on allegations that he misused automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras hundreds of times — searching the plates of his own wife and one of her previous acquaintances.
Georgetown police department officer Justin Craig was charged with official misconduct and two counts of fraud. Documents show he searched his wife's license plate more than 80 times and that of a 'previous acquaintance' of hers nearly 250 times, the news outlet WLKY reported.
The documents say Craig's searches started in January and continued up to July — a full six months of alleged activity.
The investigation was triggered by a tip from a Washington Post reporter, who called the Georgetown police chief with the information.
An internal review by the Georgetown police found that the searches Craig conducted on the Flock system were unrelated to any police investigations. Instead, he had intentionally mislabeled them to make them appear justified.
The searches had been labeled with subjects including traffic infractions, narcotics, assault/battery, theft and stolen vehicles, according to the documents.
Flock's cameras automatically take pictures of vehicle license plates so police and security companies can log the movement of cars in a given area. There are about 120,000 Flock cameras across the US, conducting roughly 2 billion scans monthly.
Flock, the company behind the tech, provides cameras and software to more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies and nearly 1,000 businesses. The company says its technology is meant to aid criminal investigations, but it has come under increasing bipartisan backlash over alleged privacy violations and data-sharing.
Multiple police officers across several US states have faced allegations of misusing the technology — some accused of using it to stalk former romantic partners, others to track down individuals seeking abortions.
The network the cameras feed into is also frequently used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose aggressive tactics under the second Trump administration have drawn nationwide criticism.
After Craig's arrest, his attorney Matthew Lemme told multiple news outlets: 'Flock sells this same technology to cities, homeowners associations, and shopping malls. When public criticism of it came, the response was to put it on the shoulders of individual police officers. The conduct alleged does not violate any law or department policy.'
The statement continued: 'If the public or police agencies believe it should, the answer is to write that law or policy. Having that public conversation about privacy and practice is appropriate. Charging officers before it has even started is not. Officer Craig will file a motion to dismiss the charges against him.'
In August, Flock's CEO announced the company would mandate that law enforcement agencies switch on features allowing audits of how individual officers use its tracking capabilities, to curb police abuses.
Altogether, this case is likely to intensify the ongoing US debate over accountability for police surveillance technology.
