July 27, 2026
By: Greg Pruett
One of the biggest concerns gun owners, and frankly, Americans in general, have with Flock Safety cameras is the inevitable abuse by government officials. When you give agencies a tool that can track citizens with near‑total visibility, the temptation to misuse that power is guaranteed.
Flock cameras can follow a person’s movements across an entire city, even when they haven’t done a single thing wrong. And despite the repeated claims that the system “only reads license plates,” law enforcement agencies nationwide can access that data to track anyone they want.
As it turns out, Americans’ fears weren’t unfounded. Cops across the country have already been busted abusing Flock access. Here are just a few of the cases:
- Jerome County Sheriff (Idaho) retired early after being caught using Flock to track his wife’s vehicle over 700 times, which he labeled as a “test” in the system. The Idaho AG’s office said there was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.
- Three Fayetteville PD officers (Georgia) were placed on administrative leave for allegedly using Flock to track their own plates, and those of family and friends.
- A Greene County deputy (Georgia) was arrested and fired for allegedly accessing Flock cameras outside his duties for nearly three months.
- Three Cherokee County deputies (Georgia) were fired and arrested for allegedly misusing Flock cameras.
- A DeKalb County deputy (Georgia) was fired and arrested for allegedly accessing Flock data. He now faces felony charges.
- Two Greer PD officers (South Carolina) were fired for allegedly accessing Flock cameras outside their official scope of duty.
- Five Albany deputies (Georgia) were arrested this month for allegedly violating their department’s Flock data policies.
- A Costa Mesa police officer (California) has been accused of tracking his wife, mistress, and rivals using Flock cameras.
- Pasadena PD (California) arrested and charged one of its officers for allegedly using Flock to track another officer.
This isn’t even close to every incident out there. But you have to ask: what in the world is happening in Georgia? Is the state a hotbed of abuse, or is Georgia simply the only place aggressively investigating officers who misuse Flock?
And how does an Idaho sheriff get to quietly retire after 700+ violations of Flock misuse?
For gun owners, the bigger concern is obvious: if these are just the cases that made the news, how many haven’t? How many violations were buried by departments? How many abuses never saw daylight? There are always more than we’ll ever know.
While departments keep insisting they want Flock cameras to “solve crime,” the pattern suggests something very different: these systems may be creating more criminals inside law enforcement than they’re catching outside it.
Note: This article first appeared in Gun News Now, and is republished here with the author’s permission.
