Indiana police officer arrested over use of Flock cameras to track wife
Justin Craig, an officer with the Georgetown police department in Indiana, has been charged with official misconduct and fraud for allegedly running hundreds of unjustified Flock license-plate searches. The case adds to concerns about misuse of the privacy-sensitive technology.
A police officer in Georgetown, Indiana, has been arrested over allegations that he repeatedly misused the Flock camera system to look up vehicles belonging to his wife and a former acquaintance of hers. Justin Craig faces a charge of official misconduct and two counts of fraud. The case matters because it again raises questions about how police use the widely deployed license-plate reading cameras.
What the documents show
According to the news outlet WLKY, which cited court documents, Craig searched his wife's license plate more than 80 times and that of the "previous acquaintance" nearly 250 times. The searches ran from January to July.
The investigation began after a Washington Post reporter phoned the Georgetown police chief with a tip. An internal review by the department found that the searches had nothing to do with any police investigation. Craig is alleged to have deliberately mislabeled them to make them look legitimate, using categories such as traffic infractions, narcotics, assault/battery, theft and stolen vehicles.
About Flock
Flock's cameras are automated license plate readers, which photograph vehicle plates so that police and security companies can log the movement of cars in an area. Roughly 120,000 of them operate across the US, carrying out about 2bn scans a month. Flock supplies cameras and software to more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies and nearly 1,000 businesses.
The company says its technology is meant to assist criminal investigations, but it faces growing bipartisan criticism over alleged privacy violations and data-sharing. Officers in several states have reportedly misused the system, including to stalk former partners and to find people seeking abortions. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also frequently uses the network.
The defence
Craig's attorney, Matthew Lemme, said Flock sells the same technology to cities, homeowners associations and shopping malls, and that responsibility was pushed onto individual officers once public criticism arose. He argued the alleged conduct violates no law or department policy, and that if it should, a law or policy needs to be written. He said Craig will file a motion to dismiss the charges.
In August, Flock's chief executive announced the company would try to curb police abuse by requiring law enforcement agencies to enable features that help audit how individual officers use the tracking tools.
