Police abuse of AI-integrated surveillance cameras is spiraling out of control.
On Wednesday, freshly unsealed court documents revealed that five Indianapolis police officers had been charged with abusing the department’s automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). The accused include officer Jonathan Schultz, an 18-year veteran, who used 300 cameras provided by the ALPR company Flock to stalk multiple women, including his ex-wife, and a woman he met at a workout class in 2023, ABC News reported.
Ten hours away in North Carolina, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office halted its Flock partnership and fired a seasoned detective who was caught using the cameras to “track the every movement of a single private citizen.” Across the country in San Jose, California, city officials are calling for a crackdown on police access to ALPRs after an officer was sacked for sharing Flock data with his cousin, who had been accused of domestic violence.
Those are just the latest incidents involving police abuse of ALPRs, and are almost certain to be superseded by new scandals in the coming days and weeks.
