Indiana officer charged with misusing Flock cameras over 200 times to track wife

Georgetown, Indiana officer Justin Craig faces official misconduct and fraud charges after allegedly running unauthorized plate searches hundreds of times.

Georgetown officer arrested for hundreds of unauthorized Flock camera searches

A Georgetown, Indiana police officer has been arrested and charged with official misconduct and two counts of fraud after allegedly misusing a Flock license plate recognition system for personal surveillance, kyma.com reports.

Officer Justin Craig is accused of searching his wife's license plate more than 80 times and running nearly 250 searches on one of her previous acquaintances — a man whose vehicle is registered in Tennessee. The searches spanned from January through July, according to court documents.

The investigation began after a Washington Post reporter contacted the Georgetown police chief with a tip. Indiana State Police subsequently met with the chief in September. An internal review found that Craig's searches on the Flock system were unconnected to any active investigations, and that he had mislabeled the queries to make them appear legitimate — categorizing them under traffic infractions, narcotics, assault/battery, theft, and stolen-vehicle matters.

Investigators interviewed Craig's wife, who said she works and sometimes stays in Lexington. When asked about her relationship with the acquaintance, she did not respond. She told police she works late hours and believed her husband had simply been concerned for her safety.

Police attempted to contact the acquaintance through the phone number linked to his vehicle, but he had not returned the call as of the time of reporting.

Craig's attorney, Matthew Lemme, released a statement following the arrest. "Flock sells this same technology to cities, homeowners associations, and shopping malls," Lemme said. "When public criticism of it came, the response was to put it on the shoulders of individual police officers. The conduct alleged does not violate any law or department policy. If the public or police agencies believe it should, the answer is to write that law or policy. Having that public conversation about privacy and practice is appropriate. Charging officers before it has even started is not." Lemme added that Craig intends to file a motion to dismiss the charges.

Source: Google News GY — Georgetown