AI incident ·
Fort Bend County, Texas, Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Reportedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System for 189 Non-Law-Enforcement Searches
On this page 8 sections
In brief
An AI system built by Surveillance technology developers, Flock Safety and 1 other and deployed by Stalkers, Law enforcement and 1 other allegedly harmed Privacy and Individuals whose license plate data were accessed for non-law-enforcement purposes.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 2 reports
What happened
From January 2022 through December 2025, a Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office lieutenant in Texas reportedly used Flock Safety's license-plate reader system to search two vehicle plates 189 times and admitted the searches were unrelated to official law-enforcement work. A resident alleged stalking and feared for their family's safety. Internal affairs found department-order violations and imposed a two-day suspension.
Editor's notes
(1) 01/2022–12/2025: the period during which the reported misuse occurred; (2) 07/17/2026: ABC13 reported internal-affairs records showing the misuse and a two-day suspension for violations of department orders; (3) The incident ID date 01/01/2022 is an approximation; the ID itself was created 09/16/2026.
Laws on record for this risk area
No instrument on record yet covers this risk area where it happened. See the open queue.
Matched from the record's risk category and country to the instruments in effect recorded here: a law listed covers the area, which is not a finding that it applies to this incident. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (2)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Stalkers Law enforcement Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office (Texas)
- Alleged developer
- Surveillance technology developers Flock Safety Automated license plate reader (ALPR) developers
- Alleged harmed party
- Privacy Individuals whose license plate data were accessed for non-law-enforcement purposes
AI systems implicated
Surveillance technologyLaw enforcement databasesFlock Safety automated license plate reader systemAutomated license plate readers (ALPR)
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
- —
- Risk subdomain
- —
- Causal entity
- —
- Intent
- —
- Timing
- —
- Harm level
- —
- Sectors
- —
- Countries
- —
Related incidents
Linked by editors or by text similarity in the source dataset.
Other incidents involving Stalkers
- Stow, Massachusetts, Police Officer Allegedly Used Flock License-Plate Reader System to Track Former Romantic Partner
- ChatGPT Was Alleged to Have Reinforced Pittsburgh Man's Stalking and Threats Against Women
- Former Coffee County, Georgia, Deputy Allegedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Track Woman
- Former Costa Mesa, California, Police Officer Reportedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Track Woman He Was Seeing and Her Romantic Partners
- Kechi, Kansas Police Lieutenant Victor Heiar Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Monitor Estranged Wife
- Queensland Man Allegedly Distributed Purportedly AI-Generated Sexual Posters Falsely Advertising Women for Sex
Source record: incident #1689 on the AI Incident Database · all 2 reports