An officer with the Porter County Sheriff’s Department who misused the county’s license plate reader system has been demoted, suspended without pay and faced other disciplinary measures, according to a release from Sheriff Jeffery Balon.
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The sheriff’s department received a complaint from a citizen who discovered that their license plate had been run by the department through the Flock License Plate Reader system for a reason that was not consistent with department policy, according to the release.
“I immediately ordered an internal affairs investigation, and the outcome of the investigation confirmed that an Officer did enter the citizen’s license plate into the Flock LPR system. The reason for the entry violated our policy,” Balon said in the release Thursday.
The cameras have come under increased scrutiny over privacy worries and concerns that law enforcement officers could misuse the data generated by the technology.
Flock Safety, which makes the cameras, announced earlier this month that it is making changes to its platform intended to quell privacy concerns and address documented abuses of its system by some members of law enforcement, according to the Associated Press.
The company operates a vast nationwide network of automated cameras that record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of all passing vehicles every day. Thousands of law enforcement agencies in 49 states can search and share Flock’s data across jurisdictions to aid their investigations, according to the AP’s reporting.
Police have credited the technology as an important crime-fighting innovation that has helped locate missing people and track suspects in violent crimes, according to the Associated Press. But some critics say its pervasiveness amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance.
Dozens of cities and agencies have nixed their relationships with Flock amid concerns that the data can be accessed for immigration enforcement or used in unauthorized tracking, after a flurry of examples surfaced of law enforcement officers misusing the technology for personal searches, according to the AP’s reporting.
Balon said in the release that the sheriff’s department doesn’t normally comment on internal affairs investigations, but “in light of the national focus on the issues surrounding License Plate Readers, I want to comment on a recent investigation involving our agency.”
A spokesman with the sheriff’s department declined to release additional information, including the officer’s rank, how long they had been with the department and when misuse of the system was discovered, because that information is part of the internal affairs investigation.
The outcome of the investigation, Balon said, resulted in the officer receiving a demotion in rank, an unpaid suspension, an indefinite suspension from the use of Flock and remedial ethics training.
The policy violation occurred under a previous version of the department’s Flock policy, Balon said in the release. The officer’s actions violated the policy in effect at the time.
“Since then, we have further strengthened our policy and implemented additional safeguards governing the use of the Flock system,” Balon said.
A case number and reason for the search are now required for all Flock searches conducted by any member of the department, Balon said. “We are also utilizing Flock’s Audit system, which uses Artificial Intelligence to identify searches that may be suspicious or otherwise raise concerns.”
Those searches are then flagged for review by the department.
“These additional safeguards provide another level of oversight and accountability regarding the use of the Flock system,” Balon said. “As I have mentioned in the past, LPRs are a valuable tool in fighting crime and helping our citizens in need. However, as with any law enforcement tool, if they are used inappropriately, we will hold our Officers accountable for their misuse.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.