License plate reading cameras used by police departments in the US to fight crime were turned into tools for personal tracking and harassment by some officers. According to the Washington Post's investigation, at least 50 police officers misused the 'Flok' system to secretly monitor ex-spouses and women.
The suspicions of a woman named Marcie Bakiley began when she realized her ex-boyfriend was tracking her remotely. The man was serving as police chief in a town 15 miles away. Bakiley said that after she installed cameras around her house and searched her car for tracking devices, the man confessed to tracking her with the 'Flok' system.
Prevalence and Operation of the System
Backed by major investors in Silicon Valley, Flok records approximately 20 billion license plate readings per month with over 120,000 cameras in more than 6,000 communities. The system enables tracking of movements by reading vehicle plates.
Documented Abuse Cases
According to the Washington Post's investigation based on court and police records, 50 officers were accused of using the system for unauthorized purposes. In 26 of those cases, it was determined that the officers targeted ex-spouses or women they wanted to get to know.
In Wisconsin, a police officer used Flok to check whether his ex-girlfriend visited a health clinic. In Kansas, a police chief was dismissed for tracking his ex-girlfriend through the system. In Florida, a sheriff's deputy added a young woman to a watch list on another license plate reading system.
Lack of Oversight and Legal Gaps
The system is vulnerable to abuse because police officers do not need a court order to conduct searches. Officers can instantly track the movements of targeted vehicles simply by entering the license plate number. There is no federal law regulating license plate reading systems in the US. The 18,000 police departments are subject to varying state and local rules. According to a project by New York University School of Law, only 13 states require audits of these systems, while 8 states criminalize their abuse.
Victims' Situation and Expert Opinions
The majority of those targeted are women. Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said, "The abuser doesn't need to constantly monitor the victim; it's enough for the victim to believe they could be watched at any moment." Bakiley, meanwhile, stated that she couldn't complain to the police department headed by her ex, asking, "Who do you complain to about a police chief?"
The company stated that the abuse rate among its 140,000 active users is low and that it provides police departments with training and logging tools for internal audits. However, according to the newspaper's findings, a feature that facilitates auditing search records has been activated by only a quarter of police departments.
Flok CEO Garrett Langley said abuse is "inevitable," arguing that the company's primary role is to provide tools to identify violators after an infraction. Experts, however, emphasize that technology is advancing faster than policy-making and that surveillance tools are expanding without control mechanisms.
