Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

The jaw-dropper here isn’t just the report that police used automatic license plate cameras to stalk romantic interests at least 14 times. It’s the way the community instantly responded with a giant, collective: “Only 14?” That was the mood all over the discussion. One commenter zeroed in on the phrase “at least,” saying those two words are carrying the whole scandal, because if investigators found 14 cases, many readers think that’s probably just the tip of a very ugly iceberg.

And then came the receipts. One local watchdog said they’ve been requesting search logs from Flock, a company that helps police and businesses track cars with camera systems, to spot suspicious searches. According to them, those logs used to make it easier to catch weird behavior, but then suddenly changed in a way that made that harder — which sent commenters straight into cover-up speculation mode. Another person piled on with an even creepier claim: that company employees may have been snooping on private camera feeds from places like pools and gymnastics studios. If true, readers say this story stops being “bad cops behaving badly” and starts looking like a full-blown surveillance free-for-all.

The hottest reactions were furious, cynical, and darkly funny. A domestic violence court watcher said misuse of government databases to stalk victims is “completely routine,” which turned the thread from outrage to full-body dread. And yes, there was biting sarcasm too: one commenter mocked their own lack of surprise that “one of the most abusive groups of people” would do this. The comments read like a mix of horror movie, accountability crusade, and gallows humor — with everybody asking the same question: who’s watching the watchers?