4th Amendment Project License Plate Readers Private Property
April 27, 2026

Police Have Reportedly Used License Plate Readers to Stalk Romantic Interests Dozens of Times in Recent Years

Christopher Ingraham
[email protected]

This article was updated on August 3, 2026

Across the United States, communities are rethinking their use of Flock cameras and other automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems, and in many cases ending them completely. Concerns about privacy, security, and always-on government surveillance are driving these changes, especially as new police technologies test the limits of the Fourth Amendment. 

The proliferation of police surveillance has led to repeated abuse. One shockingly common form: police officers using ALPR camera networks to keep tabs on their romantic interests, including current partners, exes, and even strangers who unwittingly caught their eye in public. 

An ongoing review of media reports and public records by the Institute for Justice has identified dozens of cases nationwide of officers allegedly abusing ALPR data this way, with the bulk of those incidents happening since 2024. Nearly all of these officers were criminally charged and lost their jobs, either by resigning or getting fired. 

Flock Safety and other ALPR providers emphasize that they have internal safeguards to prevent this kind of misuse. But only a few of the dozens of analyzed cases were initially discovered through internal investigations, according to media reports. Most incidents came to light only after victims reported the officers’ behavior to the police, typically in the context of a broader stalking allegation. 

“The fundamental problem with these systems is that they place private information about people’s movements over time in the hands of every officer,” said Michael Soyfer, an Institute for Justice attorney who is representing residents of San Jose and Norfolk in lawsuits challenging their cities’ ALPR surveillance networks. “Without the constitutional safeguard of a warrant requirement, that predictably allows officers to abuse their access to these systems for things like stalking romantic partners.” 

In March, for instance, an officer resigned from the Milwaukee Police Department after allegedly using the department’s network of ALPRs to track his romantic partner and one of the partner’s exes nearly 180 times over a two-month period. His misconduct surfaced only after his victims looked up their license plate numbers on HaveIBeenFlocked.com, which collects Flock audit data that some local governments have made publicly available. MPD subsequently revoked most officers’ access to the Flock database. 

Several other Wisconsin officers have also been accused of Flock stalking in the past year. In Menasha, an officer was placed on leave and charged with misconduct in office after his ex-girlfriend filed a complaint with another police department. Two hours away in Kenosha, a sheriff’s deputy resigned after internal investigators found he used the department’s Flock system to keep tabs on a coworker with whom he was romantically involved. The sheriff’s office still gave him severance pay. 

In at least one instance, an officer used an ALPR system to stalk a stranger they wanted to pursue romantically. Earlier this year in Florida, a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy allegedly used an ALPR system to track and eventually pull over a woman he met while providing security on a TV set.  

The dozens of cases listed below are almost certainly an undercount. Not all police misconduct gets detected, and some cases likely get resolved quietly. Officers frequently cite vague or inaccurate reasons for their searches in ALPR systems, sometimes to evade detection of misconduct. 

The list also excludes ALPR abuse that doesn’t conclusively involve romantic partners, like the Joplin, Missouri, officer who left his department after committing unspecified policy violations involving Flock cameras. 

Last year the Institute for Justice launched the Plate Privacy Project, a joint effort to push back against warrantless mass surveillance through litigation, legislation, activism, and media. 

List of known ALPR romantic stalking cases

30 incidents shown
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