Texas Sheriff Used Flock ALPR in Abortion Investigation (www.eff.org)

Newly released affidavits and incident reports show Johnson County (TX) deputies used Flock Safety’s automated license-plate reader (ALPR) system to hunt for a woman after a partner reported a self-managed abortion — logging the search in Flock’s audit trail as “had an abortion, search for female.” Investigators formally opened a “death investigation” into a “non‑viable fetus,” collected photos, the FedEx envelope and medication instructions, reviewed the woman’s texts, and interviewed her; prosecutors later told deputies the state could not statutorily charge her for taking abortion pills. The sheriff and Flock repeatedly framed media coverage as misleading, saying officers were conducting a welfare check for a missing person, but the sworn detective’s account and case logs contradict that narrative. The sheriff has since faced unrelated criminal charges, and the death investigation remained open for weeks. The case underscores technical and legal risks when commercial surveillance and investigative databases are used to trace sensitive health-related behavior. Audit logs show two ALPR queries: one spanning 1,295 Flock networks (17,684 cameras) over a week and a second covering 6,809 networks (83,345 cameras) over a month; the searches were run 2.5 hours after the initial call. Officials also used TransUnion’s TLO service. Cross‑state access to ALPR data may violate laws in states like Washington and Illinois and illustrates how location-data ecosystems can be repurposed to police reproductive care. Advocates note this fits a broader post‑Dobbs pattern of prosecutors using fetal‑death, neglect or related statutes to pursue pregnancy‑related cases.