Full transcript
This morning, a now former North
Carolina police officer is facing
charges, accused of using her
department's controversial license plate
cameras to track her boyfriend's
ex-wife. Investigators say Elizabeth
Snowman access to the department's Flock
camera system dozens of times for
personal use. Flock cameras
automatically scan every license plate
that passes, logging the vehicle, the
time, and the location into a searchable
database that police can use to track
vehicles.
She accessed the computers,
the LPR cameras, to find information
and track
her boyfriend's ex-wife.
Newsweek reports officers in at least a
dozen states have faced allegations of
misusing Flock license plate reader
systems, including 10 officers in
Georgia in recent weeks. Police say the
camera technology has been a
game-changer for solving crimes, but
it all goes up in smoke when you have
cops like this
violating the system.
Flock Safety says it now has about
120,000 cameras installed across the US.
Critics call it a mass surveillance
system, sparking protests over privacy
concerns. Cameras in Houston have been
vandalized, covered in spray paint. In
Winona, Minnesota, all eight of the
city's cameras were stolen. Flock CEO
saying the company is now under a
coordinated attack, but insists America
can't have both safety and privacy. The
American Civil Liberties Union says more
than 50 communities nationwide have
terminated their Flock camera contracts
in the last year. Sophie Flay, ABC News,
New York.