Indianapolis police officers used Flock's automated license plate reader network to stalk women and track an ex-wife's car more than 950 times in six months — and that's only the abuse investigators managed to catch.
Five officers — four active, one former — now face fraud and misconduct charges, with one hit with a stalking charge after investigators found he used the system to track women in order to interact with them, according to Live 5 News. Another officer allegedly looked up his ex-wife's vehicle location over 950 times across a six-month span. Four officers have been suspended; the police chief has recommended they be fired.
The mayor of Indianapolis responded by promising to work with police to "strengthen policies" related to Flock cameras. That's the standard playbook: acknowledge the abuse, promise new rules, keep the cameras running.
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the fight over Flock is playing out on a different front. Methuen City Councilor Patricia Valley claimed Lawrence Police searched her license plate 359 times over two years, citing records from the "Have I Been Focked" website. Lawrence PD pushed back hard, saying the number reflected an officer's overall search activity — not 359 searches of Valley's plate specifically. The department confirmed one search, on May 14, 2025, tied to a hit-and-run investigation involving a vehicle similar to Valley's.
But Valley's concern cuts deeper than the disputed count. She told the Boston Herald she was never contacted about an investigation involving her vehicle that has supposedly remained active since May 2025. "It is difficult for me to understand how an investigation involving my vehicle can remain active since May 2025 without anyone ever contacting me about it," she said. An active investigation she can't get records from — convenient.
Valley added: "My concern is with the power of this technology and whether there are enough safeguards and transparency surrounding how it is used."
Lawrence PD says it's working with Flock on a "transparency portal" and welcomes "constructive scrutiny" — provided that scrutiny is "based on complete and factual information rather than assumptions or incomplete accounts." Translation: trust us, not the data.
Methuen wasn't buying it. Mayor D.J. Beauregard and acting Police Chief Jamie Moore announced the city has ended its Flock contract after a comprehensive audit. "Flock does not provide sufficient protections or local control of that data," they said. Lowell is following suit, with its City Council indefinitely suspending use of the system.
Flock sells municipalities a surveillance network and tells them it's for public safety. Indianapolis proves that when you hand cops a tool with no meaningful guardrails, some of them will use it to hunt women. Methuen and Lowell prove that the only safeguard that works is pulling the plug.
The question isn't whether Flock gets abused. It's how many Indianapolis-style cases are sitting in departments that haven't been caught yet.
