WV: Large number of Flock ‘hits’ tied to sex offenders, not active investigations
During a recent information session, representatives of the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department said the county’s 20 Flock Safety license plate reader cameras captured some 572,370 unique license plate images over a 30-day period.
The department gets a number of hits through the NCIC that it never investigates because the plates are tied to known sex offenders and not an active crime or investigation. “If you’re a registered sex offender, you’re in NCIC. So every time a sex offender drives by these cameras, they go off,” Ralston said, explaining more hits are generated by sex offenders than anything else.
By way of example, he showed all the NCIC hits that officers were alerted to between July 1 and July 17. During that time, 135 hits were sex offenders.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee (FAC)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
More abuses of Flock cameras, five cops fired.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/five-police-officers-arrested-and-fired-after-abusing-flock-surveillance-cameras/ar-AA29cszU
At least national attention is there
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/26/us/flock-cameras-surveillance-abuse
This is very troubling the only reason why is, what if you visited another state, or even drive through another state to make a delivery, to stop at a restaurant, or whatever, and that state had some type of clause in their laws that state that if you come to the state for a certain amount of hours or consecutive days or whatever you must register. Something is innocent as that, could land someone in the pokey. Or, they can park somewhere to get rest as they pass it through the states and the police can come upon them and question them. So the question that’s going to be ask is is a person on the registry always under the threat not having the fourth amendment constitutional rights to privacy.
Here is one of the latest victims of the flock cameras.
Just hit my feed.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/are-you-serious-cops-pull-over-driver-in-flock-mix-up/ar-AA28GLtL?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=6a66080fa6bc4c06bc11acb2e49aebda&ei=19
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office operates 20 Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, a figure verified through public records documenting participating agencies and shared devices.
Flock Safety ALPR systems are capable of generating real-time alerts when a vehicle associated with a law enforcement hotlist passes a camera. Depending on how an agency configures its alert preferences, those hotlists can include registered sex offenders, wanted persons, stolen vehicles, AMBER Alerts, and other investigative categories. The technology can also document repeated vehicle movements through an area by capturing license plates as vehicles pass multiple cameras.
According to publicly available information, April Watson resides in another Florida community and was not a resident of Santa Rosa County. Investigative records indicate she temporarily stayed at Splash RV Resort, located at 8500 Welcome Church Road in Milton, from May 29 through June 5, meaning she appears to have been vacationing or temporarily staying in the area rather than living there.
She was later arrested during a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office sex offender registry compliance investigation and charged with failing to report that temporary address.
From an investigative standpoint, one possible explanation is that investigators became aware of her presence through the county’s Flock Safety ALPR network rather than through a tip from a member of the public. If she drove her registered vehicle from her home community to Milton and then traveled around Santa Rosa County during her stay, it is possible her license plate could have been captured multiple times by the county’s 20 ALPR cameras. If her vehicle was associated with a configured law enforcement hotlist, those detections could have automatically notified investigators that a registered sex offender’s vehicle was present within the county.
The timeline also makes this theory worthy of examination. Her reported stay at the RV resort occurred weeks before the compliance investigation that resulted in her arrest. If investigators received one or more ALPR alerts during that period, those alerts could have prompted them to verify whether she had properly reported her temporary address. This sequence of events presents a plausible investigative pathway that does not depend on a citizen recognizing her and reporting her to law enforcement.
It is important to distinguish between what is known and what remains unconfirmed. There is no publicly available evidence establishing that Flock Safety data was used in this investigation. However, given the Sheriff’s Office’s documented use of 20 Flock Safety ALPR cameras and the capabilities of those systems, ALPR detection represents a reasonable investigative hypothesis that could explain how authorities learned of her temporary stay. Confirming or disproving that hypothesis would require public records, such as investigative reports, ALPR logs, Flock Safety alert records, or other case documentation showing whether license plate reader data played a role in the investigation.
Sources
Atlas of Surveillance. Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office – Automated License Plate Readers (Flock Safety). https://atlasofsurveillance.org
Flock Safety. How Flock Safety Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) Works. https://www.flocksafety.com
Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. Public information regarding sex offender registry compliance investigations and arrest records. https://www.santarosaso.com
Santa Rosa County Clerk of Court. Court records related to the investigation, where applicable. https://www.santarosaclerk.com
Ryan – I think you posted this to the wrong article. it’s being posted so that you can hopefully copy and paste it to the story on Ms. Watson. then we’ll remove this one.
Thank you and I posted it over there. Would like to keep it here for under flock article. Also I did send a very compassionate letter to April. Can share if you would like but also asked her to at least look at the FAC website and mission statement. Thank you
You can check to see if you’ve been searched using Flock @ https://haveibeenflocked.com/
The Atlas of Surveillance is a public, searchable database and interactive map that documents surveillance technologies used by law enforcement agencies across the United States. It is a project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in partnership with the University of Nevada, Reno Reynolds School of Journalism
https://www.atlasofsurveillance.org/