Documented Incident
Review of Fall River, Mass. Flock searches finds vague or nonsensical reasons, few case numbers
First reported: October 8, 2026 · 2 sources
A review by The New Bedford Light of five years of Fall River Police Department Flock license plate reader data found officers logged more than 15,000 searches in 2025, with over half tagged with vague entries such as "investigation," "inv," single letters, a period, or apparent keyboard mashing like "mnl;k." Fewer than 3% of searches from 2021 through 2025 included a case number. Acting Police Chief J.T. Hoar called the department's pre-2025 policy — written in 2012, before Flock existed — "deficient," said auditing began in January, and stated no misuse has been identified so far, describing one officer's 1,000-plus uses of the catch-all code "99" as a training deficiency. Similar entries appeared in data from Lynn, Quincy, Braintree and Wareham officers who accessed the regional network.
Search-reason fields and case numbers are the primary audit trail for ALPR systems that officers can query without reasonable suspicion or probable cause, so weak documentation limits any department's or the public's ability to verify that searches were legitimate.
Key facts
- Fall River police ran more than 15,000 Flock searches in 2025, sometimes extending to other states; the city has used the network since 2021.
- Under 3% of Fall River searches from 2021-2025 included a case number; by August 2026 about 70% did, up from roughly 9% in July.
- Flock announced in August that case numbers will be required for all searches by the end of the year, with an emergency bypass, and added a drop-down menu for search reasons late last year.
- Two New Bedford officers face possible firing after an internal affairs investigation found each used Flock to surveil a current or former romantic partner; one logged hundreds of searches under "traffic infraction."
- The Institute for Justice has tracked ALPR abuse findings at seven Massachusetts agencies and more than 200 incidents nationally, based on news reports.
- EFF investigations director Dave Maass said the volume of searches makes abuse "almost impossible" to find; Hoar said line-by-line review of years-old data would be unreasonable absent a triggering event such as a complaint.
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Fall River police entered vague, nonsensical reasons for Flock searches (The Independent, October 8, 2026)
- Fall River police entered vague, nonsensical reasons for Flock searches (Jacksonville Journal-Courier, October 8, 2026)
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About this record
BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.
Updated October 14, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.