Indiana Officer Charged With Misusing Flock Cameras on Wife

A Flock-brand camera bolted to a utility pole scans every license plate that drifts beneath it, feeding each plate number, timestamp and location into a database that officers across thousands of agencies can search in seconds. In Georgetown, Indiana, prosecutors say one of those officers turned that database on his own household.

Justin Craig, an officer with the Georgetown police department, was arrested and charged with official misconduct and two counts of fraud after investigators concluded he ran searches on his wife's license plate and that of a "previous acquaintance" of hers hundreds of times with no police purpose, according to charging documents reported by the news outlet WLKY and cited by The Guardian. The documents show Craig searched his wife's plate more than 80 times and the acquaintance's plate nearly 250 times between January and July, WLKY reported.

What did Justin Craig allegedly search for?

According to the charging documents cited by the Guardian, Craig logged his searches under labels meant to make them look like legitimate police work — traffic infractions, narcotics, assault and battery, theft, and stolen vehicles. An internal review by the Georgetown police department found none of those searches tied to any actual investigation he was working, the Guardian reported, and concluded Craig had intentionally mislabeled the queries to disguise their real purpose: tracking his wife and a person connected to her.

How did investigators find out?

The case did not start with a complaint from inside the department. A reporter from the Washington Post triggered the investigation after calling the Georgetown police chief with a tip, according to the documents described by the Guardian. That call prompted the department's internal audit of Craig's Flock usage, which turned up the pattern of searches stretching back to January.

What charges does Craig face?

Craig was charged with one count of official misconduct and two counts of fraud, the Guardian reported, citing the charging documents. The official misconduct count relates to his use of a government surveillance system outside the scope of his duties, while the fraud counts stem from the false labels he allegedly attached to the searches to cover his tracks.

How widely are Flock cameras used by police?

Flock's automated license plate readers are now deployed by more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies and nearly 1,000 businesses across the country, according to figures cited by the Guardian. The company's roughly 120,000 cameras nationwide conduct about 2 billion scans a month, logging the movement of vehicles well beyond the scope of any single investigation. Flock says the technology is built to help solve crimes, but the sheer scale of the network — and the ease with which an officer can type in a plate number — is precisely what has drawn scrutiny from privacy advocates and lawmakers in both parties.

Has this happened with Flock cameras before?

Craig's arrest is not an isolated complaint. The Guardian reported that police officers in multiple states have been accused of misusing the camera network, including cases in which officers allegedly used the system to track former romantic partners. Flock has faced what the Guardian described as increasing bipartisan backlash over alleged privacy violations and data-sharing practices tied to its camera network, even as the company continues to expand its footprint with local departments and private businesses.

Timeline of the Georgetown Flock case

• January 2026: Craig's unauthorized searches of his wife's license plate and that of her acquaintance begin, according to the charging documents.
• Through July 2026: The searches continue, eventually totaling more than 80 queries on his wife's plate and nearly 250 on the acquaintance's plate, WLKY reported.
• Unspecified date: A Washington Post reporter contacts the Georgetown police chief with a tip, prompting an internal review.
• Following the tip: Georgetown police's internal audit finds the searches unconnected to any investigation and concludes Craig mislabeled them under categories like narcotics and theft.
• October 23, 2026: Craig is arrested and charged with official misconduct and two counts of fraud, the Guardian reported.

The case adds to a growing list of episodes in which officers with access to automated license plate readers have been accused of turning investigative tools toward personal matters, a pattern that has fed calls from both sides of the political spectrum for tighter limits on how departments audit and disclose use of the technology.