Cops Search Flock Cameras for Reasons of 'LMAO,' 'IDK,' and 'Asdfg'

A new Electronic Frontier Foundation analysis shared with 404 Media documents widespread casual and abusive use of Flock Safety's surveillance search system. In one example, a Lake County, Indiana, sheriff's deputy last summer used Flock's search engine to look for a license plate across more than 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities and towns, and logged the reason for the search as 'LMAO.'

That deputy was one of dozens of officers who entered gibberish, jokes, or nonsense into Flock's required 'reason' box, but the problem extends further: thousands upon thousands of officers wrote vague entries such as 'investigation' or 'test,' or simply left the box blank. EFF found reasons including 'LMAO,' 'LOL,' 'Hehe,' 'Haha,' 'idk,' 'blah,' 'TBD,' and 'robbery I don't remember the case number leave me alone.' It also found insults like 'idiot,' 'fuck this new search engine,' 'dickhead,' 'shithead,' and 'WEIRD KID,' plus an entire class of 'button mashers' who searched for reasons including 'asdfg,' 'gyghkkghghjkghjk,' 'jhjhjkhj,' 'jkhhkjhjk,' and 'nmbvcbnm.' The searches came from police departments across the country from 2023 through late 2025, when Flock changed how the reason box functions.

The findings arrive as Flock's automated license plate reader system faces scrutiny over privacy abuses, the perception of mass surveillance, and cases of police abuse. The company and police departments have often argued that limiting the technology would take away a powerful tool for solving serious crimes. EFF acknowledged Flock has been used in high-profile cases, but said its analysis and previous abuse reports show police often are not taking their responsibilities seriously.

EFF criticized how ALPRs are sold to city councils, saying law enforcement and vendors like Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, and Axon typically pitch them as essential for high-stakes crimes such as carjacking, kidnapping, or murder. In reality, EFF said, police are routinely searching the Flock database without legitimate justification and logging reasons like 'LOL,' 'LMAO,' 'sexy,' and 'idk' to access sensitive location data. With no warrant requirements, limited guardrails, and deficient audit processes, EFF argues, ALPR databases have fostered unrestricted access to everyone's location information and allowed police to treat a mass surveillance network like a personal search engine — tracking the movements of everyday citizens.