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NOPE
Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

Milwaukee: a police internal-affairs detective was charged in July 2026 with misconduct in public office after, according to the criminal complaint, he searched one person's license plate in the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 17 times between January 2024 and January 2025 and admitted putting a GPS device on that person's vehicle

Wisconsin Public Radio reported on 9 July 2026 that a Milwaukee Police Department detective assigned to the internal affairs division had been charged that week with misconduct in public office, a felony, and misuse of a GPS device. According to the criminal complaint as reported by WPR, he searched one person's license plate in the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 17 times between 10 January 2024 and 3 January 2025, searched another person's plate three times on 7 January 2025 listing 'training' as the reason, and admitted using the Flock system to track the whereabouts of the two people and installing a GPS device on the first person's vehicle. The detective had conducted the department's investigation into an earlier Milwaukee officer's Flock misuse, and had been suspended since 13 March 2026. The charges are allegations; he had not yet appeared in court on them when WPR reported.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
10 Jan 2024 to 7 Jan 2025
Reported
9 July 2026
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or Abuse
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
3 claims: 3 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 1 person

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader camera system used by the Milwaukee Police Department, whose plate-read records the detective searched for location information on two people (WPR, reporting the criminal complaint)

What Happened

Wisconsin Public Radio (9 July 2026), reporting the criminal complaint, said the detective admitted using the Flock camera system 20 times to 'track the whereabouts' of two people, in violation of department policy: 17 searches of one person's plate from 10 January 2024 through 3 January 2025, and three searches of another person's plate on 7 January 2025, listing 'training' as the reason. He had also admitted installing a GPS device on the first person's vehicle. According to the complaint, a department memorandum states that access to the Flock system is for investigative purposes only. The detective had conducted the investigation into an earlier Milwaukee officer's misuse of the Flock system and had been suspended since 13 March 2026. WPR reported comments from the police chief, a Fire and Police commissioner, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Flock, whose spokesperson said its audit trails let such abuse be detected.

Reported harm

One person's license plate was searched 17 times in the Flock system, which the detective admitted using to track the whereabouts of two people, and, according to the complaint, he admitted installing a GPS device on that person's vehicle; a second person's plate was searched three times (WPR, reporting the criminal complaint). The charges are allegations; he had not yet appeared in court on them when WPR reported.

Outcome

Ongoing

Charged on 8 July 2026 with misconduct in public office, a felony, and misuse of a GPS device (WPR). He had been suspended since 13 March 2026, with an initial appearance set for 17 July. A Milwaukee Fire and Police commissioner called the charges 'unspeakably troubling'. No plea or verdict had been reported when WPR published.

What remains unknown

  • How the GPS device's location data was used.
  • Whether the second person knew of or was affected by the three searches.
  • The outcome of the prosecution.
  • How the two people are connected to the detective; the reporting does not say.
  • When the GPS device was installed and how long it remained on the vehicle.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. WPR, reporting the criminal complaint, says the detective admitted using the Flock camera system to track the whereabouts of two people and lists his plate searches by date. The plate-read location records were the automated system's output about the people's vehicles; the searches and the GPS device were the detective's acts. WPR does not describe the readers as AI.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On 8 July 2026 a Milwaukee Police Department detective assigned to the internal affairs division was charged with misconduct in public office, a felony, and misuse of a GPS device.

Causal attribution. Charges as reported by WPR; the conduct remains alleged.

  • wpr.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'charged Wednesday with misconduct in public office — a felony — and misuse of a GPS device.'; 'a detective assigned to the internal affairs division'
Reported According to the complaint as reported by WPR, the detective searched one person's license plate in the Flock system 17 times from 10 January 2024 to 3 January 2025 and another person's plate three times on 7 January 2025, listing training as the reason for those three searches, and admitted using the Flock system to track the whereabouts of the two people and installing a GPS device on the first person's vehicle.

Causal attribution. Prosecution's allegations, including admissions it attributes to the detective, as relayed by WPR.

  • wpr.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'had used the camera system 17 times from January 10, 2024 through January 3, 2025 to search a license plate for the vehicle of one person.'; 'had also admitted to installing a GPS device on that person’s vehicle.'; 'searched a license plate for another person three times on January 7, 2025, listing “training” as the reason for the search.'; 'admitted to using the Flock camera system 20 times to “track the whereabouts” of two people.'
Reported The detective had conducted the investigation into an earlier Milwaukee officer's misuse of the Flock system.

Causal attribution. Complaint as relayed by WPR.

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read live on 2026-10-04 (Wisconsin Public Radio, 9 July 2026). Reports the criminal complaint and adds statements from the police chief, a Milwaukee Fire and Police commissioner, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Flock. Applies to s1.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: United States.

The searches were made by a detective of the Milwaukee Police Department's internal affairs division in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (WPR). WPR reports the charges and an initial court appearance set for 17 July but does not name the court. Where the two people live is not reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-04: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional privacy and safety case, consistent with the held Flock officer-misuse rows: WPR, reporting the criminal complaint, states that a police detective searched one person's plate in the Flock license-plate-reader system 17 times and admitted tracking two people and installing a GPS device on one person's vehicle. The charges are allegations. Neither the detective nor the people tracked are named here.

People described

Two people whose license plates the detective searched; according to the complaint, he admitted installing a GPS device on one of their vehicles. Neither is named.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

At least one person: the person whose plate was searched 17 times and on whose vehicle the detective admitted installing a GPS device (WPR, reporting the complaint). A second person's plate was searched three times; WPR does not describe harm to that person, so the minimum is 1.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#flock#alpr#license-plate-reader#police-misuse#stalking#gps-tracker#internal-affairs#wisconsin#milwaukee#criminal-charges#privacy

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Milwaukee: a police internal-affairs detective was charged in July 2026 with misconduct in public office after, according to the criminal complaint, he searched one person's license plate in the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 17 times between January 2024 and January 2025 and admitted putting a GPS device on that person's vehicle. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-milwaukee-police-internal-affairs-detective-flock-alpr-tracking-gps-device-charged

BibTeX

@misc{2024_milwaukee_police_internal_affairs_detective_flock_alpr_tracking_gps_device_charged,
  title = {Milwaukee: a police internal-affairs detective was charged in July 2026 with misconduct in public office after, according to the criminal complaint, he searched one person's license plate in the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 17 times between January 2024 and January 2025 and admitted putting a GPS device on that person's vehicle},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-milwaukee-police-internal-affairs-detective-flock-alpr-tracking-gps-device-charged}
}

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