# Man discovers how many times cops scanned his license plate
# Atlanta News First  — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtUkCvF3fa4

There's your guy right there.
Bob Sklar believes
the government is following him.
It's as if the government
was tracking you put a GPS
on, you monitored everywhere
you went when you went there.
Not just around this
small Indiana town,
but across the country.
This is where the camera is.
Amid the rows of corn,
license plate reader
cameras are cropping up
connected to the nationwide
Flock Safety Network.
Did you start to see the police
in your rear view mirror?
More than you would expect.
Only one officer.
How are you?
I would come into
town and all of a sudden
he would be there like
he was waiting for me.
Started to be more than
a coincidence. It just happened.
It kept happening more and more.
I didn't understand
why or how he knew.
And then that's when I learned
about the flock cameras.
Why are you out here
patrolling in the county?
Huh?
I don't know.
Where'd you just come
out looking for me?
Nope.
Is there any reason
they would be legitimately
tracking you?
Not that I'm aware of.
So how much is
the budget going up?
Bob regularly criticizes
the North Manchester government
and its police officers.
You speak out at town
council meetings, I do.
Whether or not this is
appropriate conduct for
a town employee, they've
adopted official rules
just because of me.
Believing the police
are following him.
He follows me out of town.
He follows me around town.
He started following them.
Keep driving,
keep driving. Bud.
I'm legally parked.
I have seen them on questionable
traffic stops and recorded it.
Please exit the emergency
incident area.
Otherwise you will go to jail.
Is it fair to characterize
you to use the legal term of
art, that you're the town
pain in the ass?
As far as the local
government's concerned.
I'm definitely one of them.
Are you allowed
to park there?
Do something about
it. Leave me alone.
Stop harassing me!
Why do you keep harassing me?
I'm just trying to.
Why do you keep harassing me?
Leave me alone.
Right about a mile
outside of town is where
this other camera is.
Bob passed by a flock camera
and wondered, is that how
the police knew where he was?
Did you file a records
request for the audit logs
to see if they were tracking
you. Yep. What happened?
They did have
an alert on my vehicle.
They didn't say what time period
or anything like that, and then
refused to identify the officer
claiming officer safety.
He found the answer online.
Have I been flocked.com?
Put in your license plate number
and you can see if there are
inquiries on your license plate.
And for mine,
the search count is 63.
I put my license plate number
in and all these hits came up.
That's scary. That is way scary.
I was shocked, emotionally
distraught when I saw
the level of surveillance
that that data revealed.
Minimum number of devices
was 11,235, maximum 98,000
almost 100,000 devices
around the country.
When an officer accesses
the flock database, all
the external departments
searched nationwide keep their
own logs of that search.
That's how we were able
to confirm dozens of
searches of Bob's tag.
Public records from out
of state departments show
multiple North Manchester
officers and Wabash County
Sheriff's deputies searched
Bob's license plate again
and again for at least a year.
Flock requires they put in
a reason for each search.
What was their reason
for searching you?
One reason. My
name just Sklar.
You know, a lot of them
were. Just locate locate
locate locate locate.
Locate isn't a crime.
Nope. I have multiple
inquiries under your
name for my vehicle.
You're going to talk
to somebody else about
that? Don't know.
Yeah, yeah.
And you don't know what
I'm talking about.
I know what you're
talking about.
You don't know what flock is.
No, I know what flock
is. I don't know what you
mean by using it to track.
Really? He's following
my travel history all
over the country.
That's none of his business.
If Bob did decide to move
away from this tiny Indiana town
and its three flock cameras,
the North Manchester Police
Department could still track
his movements nationwide because
it's connected to more than 6000
agencies in 49 states with tens
of thousands of cameras.
I remember having
a conversation with with this
officer one time and he said,
so how was your trip to Philly?
And I was like, how would you
know that I was in Philly?
That scares the hell out of me.
Neither the officer nor his
chief agreed to interviews or to
share their side of the story.
It's perfectly legal in Indiana
and most states for officers
to search the flock database
without suspicion of any crime.
Nationwide, there's a growing
pattern of officers misusing
license plate readers that are
meant to protect the public.
They knowingly use these
systems for personal reasons.
But we are tracking more than
70 cases across the country.
Unauthorized use
of a flock camera.
The number of officers
arrested for misusing these
cameras is mounting here.
Officers under investigation
disciplined, fired or arrested
for allegedly misusing flock.
Officers have used them
to stalk or harass exes.
Including searches on
personal acquaintances
and family members.
If they can do that
to them, they can do it
to anybody, can't they?
Absolutely. And that's
the scary part.
Now there's things that
we can do and we can, you
know, put some guardrails
parameter, whatever it is,
let's have that debate.
But let's not say this
technology isn't helpful
because it clearly is.
Flock says its technology
is catching bad guys with
or without a badge, while
the company openly invites
new regulations.
And there's some part of it
that the city doesn't like.
They should just regulate that
stuff, outlaw it, make rules
about it, change it, and we're
happy to oblige by those things.
Nobody in Indiana is
releasing their records
voluntarily, as far as I know.
So the only reason we know about
this is because these three
departments had metadata showing
that he made that search.
That's where have I been.
flock.com gets most of its data
network audit logs showing
external agency searches of
a department's cameras.
Flock recently changed those
logs to withhold the names
of police officers and tags
searched, saying officers
asked for their names to be
kept out of public records.
Police officers can track you
with no warrant, no reasonable
suspicion, no probable cause.
But you can't track
them tracking you.
You can't find out
who's tracking you.
That's scary. That's why we
have a secret police state now.
Bob Sklar now takes
the long way home.
A little out of
the way, but it avoids
triggering the camera.
Do you feel safer because
of flock in your town?
No, because I've
seen the abuse.
That doesn't make me
feel safe at all.
It actually makes me scared.
Bob is trying to put all
of this in his rear view
mirror, but says he still
sees officers behind him.
There's nowhere to hide.