Reporters, not police supervisors, uncovered the Flock license plate reader misuse that led to consequences for at least 19 law enforcement employees in five states.
That is the central finding of a USA TODAY investigation published Friday, Aug. 28. The three Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies suspended from the system on Aug. 14 were among those flagged by the newspaper's analysis, not by HCSO's own monitoring.
The 19 employees were arrested, fired, placed on administrative leave or put under investigation over the last two months, according to USA TODAY.
As we reported Aug. 17, HCSO manages 20 Flock networks with a combined 480 cameras. Nassau Bay operates 13 Flock cameras of its own, and HCSO patrols unincorporated areas near Friendswood and Webster with access to the full network.
What USA TODAY found
The newspaper analyzed more than 75 million Flock searches spanning 3½ years and more than 6,300 agencies. That volume represents only a fraction of total Flock searches during the period, USA TODAY reported.
The analysis identified 240 users whose search patterns stood out. Reporters contacted agencies employing 67 of them. In about half those cases, agencies confirmed or launched investigations for potential misuse.
In one Texas case, Lufkin Police Department officer Zachary Klein, an 11-year veteran, was arrested by Texas Rangers on Thursday, Aug. 20, on felony charges of abuse of official capacity and tampering with a government record. He faces at least 100 felony charges, according to court records cited by USA TODAY. Lufkin suspended all department Flock use after Klein's arrest.
Audit logs went dark in December
The investigation also revealed that Flock changed its software in December 2025 to remove most officer initials, license plate numbers and stated reasons from public audit logs. Flock vice president Chris Colwell announced the change in a series of emails to customers on Dec. 9, 2025.
Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel said the company redacted the details to protect undercover officers whose identities were being exposed through publicly released audit data. USA TODAY reported that when pressed for specific examples, Flock did not provide any.
Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), called the redactions catastrophic for transparency. He told USA TODAY that Flock "is doing it solely to cover its butt. It wants to cut down on the reporting about abusive searches."
That matters here. Without detailed audit logs, municipal utility districts and neighborhood associations that own cameras in the HCSO network have fewer tools to verify how their data is being used.
HCSO safeguards and what's still unknown
HCSO said on Aug. 14 that it would adopt Flock's new Audit Assistance tool to flag abnormal search activity and require deputies to enter a case code for every search. But according to USA TODAY, that tool only covers searches dating back to January 2026. As of early August, about a third of Flock's law enforcement customers had turned it on voluntarily, according to Flock strategic communications consultant April Sigona. Flock said it will make the tool mandatory for all agencies by the end of 2026.
Harris County's Flock contract runs through June 2027 at roughly $869,000, Houston Public Media reported on Aug. 24.
When HCSO announced the suspensions on Aug. 14, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the technology "is subject to abuse" but pledged that "any deputy who abuses the public trust will be held fully accountable, both professionally and criminally," according to Fox 26.
HCSO has not publicly named the three deputies, described the specific conduct under review, or said whether the administrative review has concluded.
Residents with information about potential Flock misuse can contact the Harris County Sheriff's Office at 713-221-6000 or the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
