A Georgia crime analyst and a California police officer both weaponized Flock's license plate reader system to stalk women — exactly the abuse privacy advocates warned about when law enforcement started blanketing the country with tracking cameras.
In Athens-Clarke County, police crime analyst Nicholas James Barker, 33, was arrested September 9 and charged with misusing the Flock system to repeatedly query the license plate of his ex-wife's car between April and October 2025, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. Barker, a civilian employee, was released on $1,300 bond and will be arraigned in November. His ex-wife's complaint triggered the investigation. In San Jose, an officer was fired after using Flock data on his personal phone to share the location of a woman with her alleged abuser — his own cousin — according to Chief Paul Joseph. The officer was not charged with a crime.
These are not outliers. The Institute for Justice reports that dozens of law enforcement officers have used license plate readers to stalk women. The technology has spread to tens of thousands of cameras nationwide, and every camera is a temptation for the person holding the login.
Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jerry Saulters responded to Barker's arrest by restricting Flock access to officers holding the rank of lieutenant and above, requiring prior approval from a captain, deputy chief, or the chief, and limiting queries to felony investigations, missing or endangered person cases, and critical circumstances. That's a lockdown after the fact — the kind of safeguard that should have existed from day one.
In San Jose, Chief Joseph said he was "furious that an officer would betray the public's trust in that manner, that he would not understand how serious of a violation that is." Fury is easy. Accountability is harder. The Santa Clara County district attorney's office did not charge the officer. Joseph called on state lawmakers to make such violations easier to prosecute as crimes.
They haven't. The California Assembly adjourned this month without acting on a bill that would have imposed new regulations on license plate readers, including a mandate to delete data unrelated to investigations after two months. That makes five straight years California lawmakers have declined to impose new safeguards, according to CalMatters. Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill previously.
The Guardian framed the story around concerns that law enforcement shares Flock data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling the technology part of Trump's "broadly unpopular mass deportation agenda." The Athens Banner-Herald stuck to the facts of the arrest. Both outlets agree on the core problem: the system gets abused. The Guardian just chose to pivot to immigration politics rather than stay focused on the stalking pattern.
Here is the pattern: government gets a surveillance tool, promises it will only be used for serious crimes, then people with access use it to settle personal scores, stalk women, or help abusers find their victims. When caught, some face misdemeanors. Some get fired. Some walk. The cameras stay.
The question isn't whether Flock and similar systems will be abused. The Institute for Justice's count says they already are, repeatedly. The question is whether any safeguard short of pulling the cameras down can stop the next analyst or officer with a grudge and a database.
