Cop Explains Why He Used License Plate Reader to Stalk Woman
404media.co
404media.co
People always comment that we need to do more screening before people become cops, do more training. The screening and the training are the problem.
Cops do need more training, like dramatically more training. I think the screening process is trying to solve a really difficult problem. You don't know if/how someone will be corrupted when they have a little bit of power. Or how they will change over time.
From my own personal conversation with a hostage scenario trainer for the police, he said de-escalation forms only a tiny percentage of his training because that’s not what the cops want, even though he would make that the majority of the training given a free hand, since de-escalation doesn’t just increase the chances of the hostages being safe, but also the cops and the first responders.
I do see what you are saying regarding de-escalation. It seems like one of those things that is easy to mistakenly dismiss as "easy" and focus on something like firearms or tactics training.
Even if that were true the answer wouldn't be to not train them more. The answer would be to give them more proper training.
They are like a toddler in a toy store and want the shiniest thing.
Pay close attention to how he insists that she was coming on to him. He genuinely believes that. He lives in a fake reality that he adjusts in whatever way will make him happiest because he has spent so long in a system that has zero repercussions or accountability.
He probably shouldn't be allowed to own a gun.
Men like this know they are doing bad things. They don't care. There are no repercussions. They do not feel bad about doing these bad things.
See also: https://www.bwss.org/abusive-men-describe-the-benefits-of-vi...
Basically, these people just choose to not care about other people. They know they are hurting someone. But minor personal convenience is more important to them than not hurting another person.
Is doing an INSANE amount of heavy lifting here for that generalization but yeah point taken.
I've studied criminal justice before CS, and after getting to know cops I decided it isn't for me. The culture is awful. It is like high school, a lot of drama, sleeping around, many divorces, abuse of power and just screwed up mentality.
What makes this story worse is this for me: "The detective investigating Roman told the man “you’ll get past this bro” during his arrest, and later told the victim that he was "remorseful" and urged her not to post about the incident on social media, according to body camera footage obtained by 404 Media."
The detective urged the victim not post about it.....both should be stripped of badges immediately and never get certified again.
> I can’t tell you what to post or not post, but if you could refrain from posting anything until my investigation is over, I would appreciate it.
emphasis mine, given that, "The detective urged the victim not post about it" seems like taking things bit out of context.
The US has a problem with zero accountability for cops. Literally zero.
They should be thrown into jail for serious misuse of restricted tools and should not be able to work in any enforcement job ever again. This would solve the problem really fast. We are going to have discussions about how flock is bad, like we had with stingray devices, yet nothing is going to change as nothing can be done about the root issue.
Flock basically knows what a malicious request looks like. The simple example he gives is someone pinging the same license plate every day without putting it on a watchlist, because the officer doesn't want others to know. They started rolling out auto-detection of bad-faith queries and flagging those to supervisors.
If you figure that some percentage of cops are dirty, a simple easily detectable honeypot is extremely effective in identifying them and firing them. I guess the hard part here is actually holding the cops that abuse the system accountable but that's also likely solvable. It's a huge liability for the police force. Usually the ones that are protecting dirty cops are the police unions, but that's a whole different conversation
It's also important to note that Flock is just a license plate reader. It doesn't record video or do any facial recognition. And storage typically gets deleted between 1 and 7 days and is up to the precent to set.
https://singjupost.com/transcript-all-in-interview-with-floc...
> The code describes 45 tools at the AI’s disposal, giving it access to plate scans and camera metadata, arrest records, case files, dispatch logs, ballistics results, and commercial databases that contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and associates.
Sounds like they're shipping an AI that can use external datasources like an MCP. By this regard, Claude does exactly the same thing. Give it access to a database with social security numbers and it'll query them for you.
The rest of the things described in the article is all a byproduct of having a database (typically kept around for 1-7 days) of cars, their license plates, locations and some physical description of the car. For instance:
> vehicles that left one city for another and returned within a week, made repeat roundtrips over 14 days, or passed through three areas in sequence.
If you have still photos of every car passing on particular street corners, this is just a query. They're just taking photos and reading license plates. And they started getting some description of the car, like unusual things. The CEO talks about that as well. From the interview:
> A car drives by, we take a still image of the vehicle, we read the license plate, and the system’s gotten more sophisticated with time. We can detect things like a roof rack or a bumper sticker or dent or damage, but that’s at its core what the technology does...
> So it’s pretty cool technology, and pretty effective, because if you think about what happens on a 911 call, most people don’t instinctively look at the license plate and remember it. They see the thing that was unique about the car — oh, it had damage on the right side.
I would definitely recommend the interview if you want to learn more.
Your goalposts are quite mobile.
It's entirely reasonable imo since you have no expectation of privacy on the road. I can take pictures of cars that drive by my house. I don't even know what were arguing about here.
You're spreading misinformation about what these things are and aren't. It's fucked up. But I'm hopeful that you can do better.
Also, please, for your sake -- submit a FOIA request for footage taken from a public camera. It'll get denied because public records laws consider this sorta information private. Your oversimplification is intellectually silly.
Of course we shouldn't let some random person foia these records. These are for police matters only. What are you even arguing for?
Not that, you know, there is clear evidence that police departments just don't put any effort into fixing problems. Ask any former cop.
Unions aren't magic. In any other industry, they don't let you commit crimes and avoid punishment. You will find that plenty of unions don't have such absurd power, because there is pushback from the companies that work with them. Last I checked, it wasn't the SAG that allowed pedophiles free reign in the entertainment industry, but rather the fact that the industry had so many pedophiles that they could protect and aid each other.
Did police unions force police departments to have such limited training? To have such hostile and fake training? Did the police union make the cop brag to his buddies about what he did?
When's the last time the pilot's union tried to defend a pilot who showed up to work drunk as being above reproach? How come rail unions weren't able to prevent measures that punish engineers who are distracted with their phone when they should be working?
How come other public sector unions, like teachers and nurses, don't seem to have this problem?
That's like saying the SS served as a honeypot for genocidal maniacs.
And they identify lots more than just license plates. What license plates were visible inside the YMCA children's gym? Or at public pools on the pooldeck?
Garrett has also said that he sees false positives as a better outcome than false negatives, because the latter doesn't advance Flock's mission towards "a world with no crime, thanks to Flock" (with unironic apologies to Minority Report).
Is it dystopian if a company doesn’t sell fentanyl to a police precinct because it’s up to the police to decide and the company should just give them whatever they ask for?
edit: lol at your response that’s flagged before I could reply. No consistency in morals, just sweeping for destruction of the rule of law.
In a paraphrase of your own words, it’s just some criticism bro.
But to you, "it's not up to them to know the law".
"Sorry, Officer, I'm reselling my prescription medications, but only because it's not up to me to interpret the law that says I can't."
Dystopian visions are what Flock is selling, in as many words: "A world where there is no crime, thanks to Flock." Garrett: "A false positive is a better result, because a false negative doesn't contribute to our mission." Meanwhile you're worried that your libertarian fever dream is being pissed on by expecting corporations not to break the laws that they acknowledge they know.
2) One of their products is a license plate scanner / reader.
3) This scanner / reader consumes camera output which includes license plates.
3) One of their products is a tracker / alerter / searcher.
4) The searcher / tracker isn't limited to license plates, it can correlate on other aspects in the photo. These other aspects concern the vehicle, the vehicle occupants, objects and individuals elsewhere in the photo.
This is backed up by their statements. If you have an alt source supporting your statement please provide
https://www.investigatetv.com/2026/06/15/flock-says-its-came... Company’s newest devices use AI to follow pedestrians, while protesters are mapping nearly 90,000 surveillance cameras nationwide.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/flock-cameras-are-... camera provider has rapidly expanded its products, functionalities, and customer base, creating a vast network of video cameras, audio detection devices, drones, and mobile security trailers. This expanded offering is powered by AI algorithms that process far more than drivers' license plates, recording vehicle profiles, pedestrians
https://www.rsn.org/001/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-n... Cops have used Flock's FreeForm search feature to look for people with tattoos and wearing specific sport shirts, and searches sometimes include the target's race, according to data reviewed by 404 Media. [yeah, 404 Media, you might start there]
https://wlos.com/news/local/asheville-flock-cameras-paintbal... officers identified the juvenile suspects through an investigation and the use of Flock cameras... [wait, there's more, keep reading, KEEEEP REEEDING] Officials who support the use of Flock cameras have argued that the cameras help solve crimes and find missing or endangered people.
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