Daijiworld Media Network - New York
New York, Sep 10: A New York law enforcement officer has been arrested and charged with allegedly misusing Flock Safety's license plate surveillance system to spy on nearly half a dozen people, including her former girlfriend, officials said.
Laurie Moore, 47, a 13-year veteran of the Albany County Sheriff's Office, was arrested on September 9 after investigators alleged that she conducted more than 4,000 unauthorised searches involving five acquaintances over nearly two years.
Moore, a senior investigator with the agency's criminal investigation unit, allegedly used the system without a lawful purpose to track her former girlfriend's vehicle at least 3,000 times. She also allegedly searched four other vehicle licence plates hundreds of times each.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said the agency learned about the alleged misuse on September 4 after an outside source prompted an investigation. Moore was subsequently placed on administrative leave.
She has been charged with falsifying business records and official misconduct, both misdemeanours, and has been ordered to appear in court on September 24. It was not immediately clear whether she had obtained legal representation.
"This is a gut punch," Apple said at a September 9 news conference, while stressing that he has long supported licence plate reader technology because of its role in solving serious crimes.
"What happened here is a breach of that trust. And for that, I'm truly sorry," Apple said, adding that anyone who abuses such trust would be held accountable.
Flock Safety's AI-powered surveillance cameras automatically scan and preserve vehicle licence plate numbers and feed the information into a searchable database accessible to law enforcement agencies and other authorised users.
The technology has faced growing scrutiny across the United States over concerns about privacy and potential misuse.
The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that Flock Safety has installed around 120,000 cameras across the country.
According to the ACLU, the cameras have been used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to locate immigrants. The organisation has also cited cases involving Kansas police searching for a man who wrote a critical newspaper opinion article and Colorado police wrongly accusing a woman of theft.
A recent USA TODAY investigation of Flock Safety audit logs from 124 law enforcement agencies found numerous cases of potentially improper or illegal use of the technology. The investigation has since been followed by several arrests, firings and further probes.
The investigation came about two weeks after Flock Safety changed its policies for law enforcement use. Company CEO Garrett Langley had warned that police officers misusing the system "will get caught."
Albany County District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon, who also spoke at the news conference, described the surveillance system as an "invaluable" tool that needs to be protected from misuse.
Kindlon said the cameras have helped police catch criminals, locate missing children and provide answers to families who might otherwise have remained without them.
"Which is exactly why we cannot let it be used in any other way," he said.