Former Indiana deputy charged with felony for misusing traffic camera system
A former Jackson County sheriff’s deputy has been indicted for abusing Flock camera data to repeatedly search his girlfriend’s license plate.
Jackson County prosecutors have charged former deputy Skylar Thompson with a Level 6 felony for official misconduct and a misdemeanor fraud count after discovering he used the department’s Flock camera system to conduct more than 2,000 license-plate searches on his girlfriend between Dec. 31, 2025 and Aug. 2. The internal audit flagged the activity, and Thompson recorded the queries under a false “city planning/traffic analysis” label despite lacking any related assignment.
The sheriff’s office referred the matter to the Indiana State Police, and Thompson turned himself in on Monday, subsequently resigning. He later visited his girlfriend’s home to admit the wrongdoing. The prosecutor’s office emphasized that law-enforcement tools must be used solely for legitimate purposes and that no one is above the law. Flock Safety’s spokesperson defended the technology as a public-safety asset while supporting privacy safeguards.
Why it matters
The case highlights risks of law-enforcement data misuse and raises privacy concerns about traffic-camera technology.
How this story developed
- Jul 9 Flock Safety CEO brands transparency group as 'terrorist' amid AI camera controversy
- Aug 8 The Navajo Nation signed a contract to deploy Flock cameras across its reservation.
- Aug 12 Authorities found solar‑panel parts linked to Flock cameras during a search of Sovern’s residence.
- Aug 13 Flock Safety announced it will keep license-plate-reader footage for only seven days and require police to log a case code for every query.
- Aug 13 Former Bibb County sheriff’s deputies were arrested on stalking charges for using Flock license‑plate readers for personal purposes.
- Aug 13 Flock made its audit tool mandatory and reduced the default retention window to seven days.
- Aug 18 Park rangers reported Flock cameras appearing in several national forests.
- Aug 19 West Virginia legislator Chris Anders introduced a bill to ban Flock Safety cameras on constitutional grounds.
- Aug 21 New Bedford Police Department shut down its entire Flock camera system after discovering repeated unauthorized plate searches.
- Aug 26 Texas residents rallied at a Harris County meeting to demand stronger privacy protections for Flock cameras.
- Aug 26 A clerical error in Milwaukee’s Flock camera database led to a gunpoint traffic stop, prompting the driver to hire counsel and submit a notice of claim against the city and police department.
- Aug 28 Pflugerville, Texas voted to terminate its contract with Flock Safety and switched off all 28 cameras.
- Aug 31 Senator Josh Hawley opened a Senate investigation into Flock Safety's data practices.
- Sep 1 Florida Department of Transportation cancels permits and orders removal of Flock cameras from state highways.
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