New Bedford police officer accused of using Flock cameras to track ex-partner
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
A New Bedford police officer allegedly used Flock license plate readers to stalk an ex-girlfriend.
Officer Emily Pacheco faces an internal affairs investigation and an abuse prevention order after her ex-girlfriend alleged she used Flock cameras to track her. A judge found Pacheco poses a credible threat and ordered her to surrender firearms. Pacheco ran 259 searches in May and 220 in June, often citing "traffic infraction." The New Bedford Police Department temporarily suspended Flock use pending a review of past searches. The department's policy explicitly forbids personal use of the system.
The ACLU of Massachusetts cited the case as evidence of need for stronger oversight of surveillance technology.
What commenters are saying
Commenters saw this as a concrete vindication of long-standing privacy concerns, with several mocking the "if you have nothing to hide, nothing to worry about" argument. One recounted successfully challenging that reasoning by using an online tool to build a profile of the commenter. Many questioned why a patrol officer had such broad access without extra authorization, and suggested that repeated searches should trigger automatic audits. A few dismissed the story as overblown, arguing the abuse was interpersonal, not a failure of the technology itself; others countered that the system's design enabled the stalking.