Officers Stalking Partners and Exes
The Institute for Justice and other civil liberties groups have compiled at least 18 documented casesof officers using Flock's database to track romantic interests, ex-partners, coworkers, and private citizens with no legitimate law enforcement purpose. Most were only discovered after victims filed complaints or used independent audit-log lookup tools. Confirmed A sample, not exhaustive:
| Year | Jurisdiction | Conduct | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Westmoreland County, PA | Officer Michael McSherryTracked estranged wife and family members. | Pleaded guilty to criminal stalking. | Source ↗ |
| 2023 | Kechi, KS | Lt. Victor HeiarTracked estranged wife. | Pleaded guilty to computer crime and stalking. | Source ↗ |
| 2023 | Sedgwick, KS | Police Chief Lee NygaardTracked ex-girlfriend and her new partner 228 times. | Resigned under investigation. | Source ↗ |
| 2023 | Costa Mesa, CA | Officer Robert JosettTracked mistress and her acquaintances. | Pleaded guilty to multiple charges (April 2026). | Source ↗ |
| 2024 | Riverside County, CA | Deputy Alexander VannyTracked ex-fiancée's friend after a kidnapping arrest. | Convicted on multiple charges in jury trial (Dec 2025). | Source ↗ |
| 2024 | Orange City, FL | Officer Jarmarus BrownTracked ex-girlfriend's vehicle 100+ times over seven months. | Arrested and criminally charged (2025). | Source ↗ |
| 2024 | Shelby County, TN | Deputy Thadius GordonTracked ex-wife's vehicle 100+ times. | Relieved of duty. | Source ↗ |
| 2025 | Louisville, KY | Officer Roberto CedenoTracked ex-partner and friends hundreds of times. | Charged with multiple felonies. | Source ↗ |
| 2025 | Milwaukee, WI | Officer Josue AyalaTracked dating partner and ex-partner ~179 times over two months. | Charged with attempted misconduct in public office (Feb 2026). | Source ↗ |
| 2025 | Jerome County, ID | Sheriff George OppedykSearched for his wife's vehicle hundreds of times. | State AG found no crime committed; retired early (April 2026). | Source ↗ |
| 2025 | Kenosha County, WI | Deputy Frank McGrathTracked a romantically-involved coworker. | Resigned under investigation, with severance pay. | Source ↗ |
| 2025 | Menasha, WI | Officer Cristian MoralesTracked ex-girlfriend following relationship termination. | Placed on leave; charged with misconduct in office. | Source ↗ |
| 2025 | Braselton, GA | Police Chief Michael SteffmanTracked ex-partner and multiple private citizens, including searches of neighboring agencies' camera data. | Resigned; arrested on stalking and harassment charges. | Source ↗ |
| 2026 | Coffee County, GA | Deputy Chris RozarTracked a romantic interest. | Fired; charged with multiple offenses. | Source ↗ |
| 2026 | Winnebago County, IL | Deputy Tyler BryanTracked ex-girlfriend and her partner. | Charged with stalking, official misconduct. | Source ↗ |
A Search for "Had an Abortion" Reached 83,345 Cameras Nationwide
A Johnson County Sheriff's deputy ran a National Lookup query with the literal reason field "had an abortion, search for female" — sweeping 6,809 camera networks across nearly the entire country, including Washington and Illinois, both states with reproductive-rights shield laws. The department publicly framed it as a welfare check. Internal records said otherwise. Read the full case →
False Arrests From Bad Data
Redmond, Washington
In August 2025, Redmond police detained Thor Andrews Sr. in his own driveway after a nearby camera flagged his silver 2012 Ford Fusion as "associated" with his son, who had an active felony warrant. Records show officers knew the car was registered to the father, not the son — they detained him anyway, without verifying his identity first. He was injured during the arrest. The incident, combined with separate federal data-sharing concerns, led the Redmond City Council to suspend its entire camera network in November 2025. Confirmed
Oak Park, Illinois
A Citizen Police Oversight Committee audit of the first ten months of Oak Park's deployment found that 40% of the 25 traffic stopstriggered by Flock alerts were confirmed errors — most commonly because a stolen vehicle had been legally recovered and returned to its owner, but the state database hadn't been updated. Owners were stopped at gunpoint for driving their own, legally-recovered cars. The audit found Black drivers and passengers accounted for the overwhelming majority of these erroneous stops. Confirmed
Racially Targeted Search Terms
Audit logs obtained by EFF in November 2025 showed more than 80 law enforcement agencies running searches using terms targeting Romani people — including slurs — without articulating any specific suspected crime, between June 2024 and October 2025. One Texas department combined these searches with Flock's "Convoy" feature, which flags vehicles traveling near each other, to profile traveling communities as a group. Confirmed
Separately, a Christopher Newport University study in Hampton Roads, Virginia found Flock installations disproportionately concentrated in and around Black neighborhoods. A 2026 audit in New Castle, Pennsylvania found the city had placed its cameras exclusively within its one majority-minority neighborhood. Confirmed
Security & Retention Failures
Flock states its cloud platform has never had a successful breach. Self-Reported by Flock Independent researchers have found vulnerabilities elsewhere in the system: over 35 valid law enforcement credentials appeared on Russian cybercrime forums in late 2025, and a carrier misconfiguration briefly exposed diagnostic interfaces on some camera units to the open internet. Confirmed Separately, a 2024 Austin, Texas municipal audit found Flock had retained scan data past the one-week limit the city council had set, keeping millions of records on drivers never suspected of any crime. Confirmed