A pollice chief in Georgia utilized AI-powered surveillance cameras to monitor his ex-girlfriend , searching her vehicle's plates hundreds of times. This case highlights a dangerous trend of law enforcement officers abusing license-plate-reader technology for personal harassment.
How Michael Steffman Used 600 Plate Searches to Stalk Marci Bakely
Marci Bakely, a mother living in Jefferson, Georgia, spent months in a state of high alert, feeling an invisible presence tracking her every move.. Whenever Bakely visited a doctor or went grocery shopping, her ex-boyfriend, Michael Steffman—a police chief in a neighboring town—would send messages accusing her of various wrongdoings within minutes of her arrival. The psychological toll was so severe that Bakely installed home security cameras and employed a hidden-camera detector to find the source of the intrusion.
The mystery was solved only after Bakely discovered that Steffman had access to Flock, an AI-driven network of roadside cameras. According to the report, public records shared by the website Have I Been Flocked revealed that Steffman had searched the license plates of Bakely and her teenage daughter approximately 600 times. While Steffman was eventually arrested on charges of harassment and stalking, he died by suicide in April before the legal process could reach a trial.
Flock Security's 20 Billion Monthly Scans and the Risk of Abuse
The infrastructure enabling this level of intrusion is vast. Flock Security has established itself as a dominant force in American surveillance, deploying more than 120,000 cameras across 6,000 different communities. as the report notes, these systems are incredibly prolific, recording roughly 20 billion plate scans every single month. While the company markets these tools as essential for fighting crime, the sheer volume of data creates a massive opportunity for misuse by those with access.
With 140,000 users currently operating the system, the potential for 'love services'—a colloquial term for officers using police databases to stalk romantic interests—is high.. The case of Michael Steffman in Georgia is not an isolated incident of a rogue actor, but rather a symptom of a system that provides immense power with insufficient friction.
The 50 Officers Accused of Using ALPRs for Personal Obsession
The scope of this problem extends far beyond a single town in Georgia. A detailed review of court records and internal reports by The Washington Post found that at least 50 police officers across the United States have faced charges or accusations for using license-plate readers to stalk individuals.. These targets inclluded ex-partners, romantic interests, and in some cases, complete strangers.
The Washington Post specifically identified 26 cases where officers allegedly used Flock's AI cameras to track the movements of their wives or girlfriends. This pattern suggests that the technology, designed to find stolen cars or suspects, is being repurposed as a tool for domestic obsession and control, often without the victims' knowledge until long after the surveillance has begun.
Why Optional Safeguards Failed the Washington Post's 26 Identified Victims
A primary driver of this abuse is the lack of mandatory oversight. The report indicates that many police departments have overlooked officer misconduct because internal audits are lax and the settings designed to prevent abuse are often optional.. This means that the decision to implement safeguards is left to the discretion of the department, rather than being a hard-coded requirement of the software .
While Flock Security has promised to introduce new filters and improved oversight tools to curb these abuses, several critical questions remain. It is currently unclear how many officers are misusing the system without being caught, and whether the new filters will be mandatory or remain optional. Furthermore, the source only reports Flock's promise of future tools, leaving it unknown when these protections will actually be deployed to the 6,000 communities currently using the tech.
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