Officer Arrested After Tracking Ex on Flock Camera
Sandego.net – A police officer arrested after tracking his ex-girlfriend’s license plates more than 2,000 times through a commercial surveillance database has been charged in Shively, Kentucky. Chief Andre Bottoms announced the custody action Wednesday, describing the case as a personal blow to the small-town department. The incident lands amid a national reckoning over roadside plate-reader systems that have drawn disciplinary action, contract cancellations, and even vandalism in communities across the country.
Patrol officer Asad Zahir, a 2022 hire assigned to the division’s street unit, allegedly executed 2,048 queries on the Flock Safety platform between January and May. Each search targeted one of two vehicles registered to the mother of his child, with plates active in both Kentucky and Indiana. Court filings show he also harassed the woman and made threats during that same window, leading her to secure a protective order. Bottoms confirmed that 241 of the plate lookups occurred after the order took effect, spanning April 17 through May 6.
How the Pattern Was Caught
Zahir had logged every single query under the label “drug or narcotics investigation,” despite the fact that the woman had never been the subject of any controlled-substance inquiry and carried no record suggesting such involvement. An artificial-intelligence auditing tool—now mandatory for all Flock Safety subscribing departments—flagged the anomalous volume on Monday. By Tuesday, the officer was in custody.
He faces five counts of official misconduct in the fifth degree and five counts of unlawful access to a computer in the fourth degree. Bottoms confirmed a suspension without pay pending both the criminal case and an internal review. Zahir was released on his own recognizance Tuesday; arraignment is set for Friday, though no attorney had been identified as of Wednesday’s briefing.
“Charging this officer was not pleasant. It was a gut punch for me personally,” Bottoms told reporters. “Accountability cannot depend on who you are and what position you hold or what badge you’re wearing.”
The Wider Flock Backlash
The Shively matter is the newest entry in a catalogue of incidents in which officers have been disciplined, arrested, or pushed out after allegedly exploiting the Flock Safety network to surveil ex-partners, romantic interests, or other private individuals. The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public-interest firm that has litigated Fourth Amendment challenges against the company, has documented at least 47 cases of officers facing some form of discipline for alleged misuse of the system to stalk people they know personally. A reporter who maintains the institute’s tracking database believes the true count is considerably higher.
The reaction has moved past the courtroom. Several municipalities have terminated their Flock contracts in recent weeks—Tempe, Arizona, among them on Wednesday itself. In other communities, residents have taken to damaging the roadside sensors directly, an act of civil disobedience underscoring how quickly public trust in the technology has eroded. Critics argue that a database logging every plate passing a sensor, paired with unrestricted search access for individual officers, creates a surveillance apparatus far more intrusive than the investigative tool its vendors advertise.
Bottoms and other supporters maintain the cameras deliver genuine investigative value when operated within proper protocols.
“The Flock camera works. When it’s used properly it works. There are tons of stats that show it works,” Bottoms said. “It’s a very effective tool and we don’t want to be judged on the poor decisions made by one officer.”
Protocol Review and What Comes Next
Bottoms announced that a comprehensive review of every procedural element governing Flock use in Shively is already underway. The examination will cover user access levels, prerequisites officers must satisfy before running a search, the degree of supervisory oversight applied, auditing practices, and the frequency of compliance reviews. Findings will determine whether revisions to existing directives or additional safeguards are warranted.
FAQ
What is the Flock Safety system? Flock Safety is a network of roadside cameras that capture license-plate images and feed them into a searchable database. Police departments subscribe to query plates for investigative purposes, though the same access can be used to look up any plate that has passed a sensor.
What charges does the Shively officer face? Officer Asad Zahir faces five counts of official misconduct in the fifth degree and five counts of unlawful access to a computer in the fourth degree. He has been suspended without pay and released on his own recognizance pending arraignment.
How many searches were made, and over what period? Zahir allegedly ran 2,048 plate queries between January and May. Of those, 241 occurred after a protective order was already in effect (April 17 through May 6).
What is happening nationally in response to Flock misuse? The Institute for Justice has documented at least 47 instances of officer discipline tied to alleged Flock misuse. Several cities, including Tempe, Arizona, have terminated their contracts, and residents in other areas have vandalized the cameras themselves.
