Police searched a nationwide camera network for reasons including “LMAO,” “idk” and keyboard mashing

An EFF review of Flock Safety audit logs found officers searching the nationwide license-plate camera network while entering reasons such as “LMAO,” “LOL,” “hehe,” “idk,” “asdfg,” blank text and sexual or offensive phrases. In one case, an Indiana officer’s query reached more than 19,000 cameras across 1,558 towns with “LMAO” as the stated justification.

Some departments said legitimate investigations existed behind the bad entries and have since required case numbers or counseled officers. But the logs cover 2023 through late 2025, and earlier public-records work has documented searches connected to immigration enforcement, abortion investigations, protests and personal misuse. The underlying accountability model depends on an officer accurately describing why a search was made and someone later reviewing that description.

Flock replaced the free-text reason field with generic drop-down categories, partly reducing casual nonsense. That also reduces transparency: an officer can select “traffic infraction” or “other” without articulating the purpose, and outside reviewers lose the language that previously exposed questionable searches. Flock says it is adding mandatory case codes, automated anomaly detection and proactive lockouts; those controls could catch some misuse, but they shift oversight toward the vendor and the police agencies operating the system.

Audit logs are useful only when entries are specific, validated and reviewed; otherwise the existence of a log can create the appearance of accountability while a search still exposes a person’s movements across thousands of cameras.