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NOPE
Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

Albany County, New York: a senior sheriff's investigator was charged in September 2026, accused of more than 4,000 unauthorized Flock license-plate-reader searches on five people known to the investigator, including about 3,000 tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle

The Albany County Sheriff's Office in New York said a senior investigator conducted more than 4,000 unauthorized searches of the Flock license-plate-reader system involving five people known to the investigator. According to the sheriff's office, the searches include tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle around 3,000 times and running four other plates hundreds of times each. The sheriff said an outside source prompted the investigation. The investigator, a 13-year veteran of the office, was arrested on 9 September 2026 and charged with official misconduct and falsifying business records, both misdemeanors, and was suspended indefinitely. The sheriff said access to Flock data is now limited to supervisors and audited every 30 days. The five people are not identified, and the dates of the searches are not reported. The charges are allegations.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
9 September 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 · Relationships
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
5 people

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader system used by the Albany County Sheriff's Office, New York, searched by the investigator through agency access (sheriff's office statement as reported by CBS6 Albany)

What Happened

CBS6 Albany (WRGB) reported on 9 September 2026 that the Albany County Sheriff's Office accused one of its senior investigators of misusing the Flock license-plate-reader system. The sheriff's office said the investigator conducted more than 4,000 unauthorized searches involving five people known to the investigator, including tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle around 3,000 times and running four additional plates hundreds of times each. The sheriff said an outside source prompted the investigation on a Friday and that the scope emerged as professional standards staff and in-house counsel expanded an audit; the investigator was arrested the following Wednesday. The investigator, a 13-year veteran of the office, is charged with official misconduct and falsifying business records, both misdemeanors, and has been suspended indefinitely. An additional command staff member was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, and the sheriff said it did not appear that other members of the agency had engaged in unauthorized vehicle tracking. The sheriff said the office has restricted Flock access to supervisors and added an audit reviewed every 30 days. The sheriff said the investigator's access to the Flock system dated roughly to the end of 2024. The report does not identify the five people, give the dates of the searches or say whether the people knew of them. The source does not describe the readers as AI.

Reported harm

According to the Albany County Sheriff's Office, a senior investigator ran more than 4,000 unauthorized Flock license-plate-reader searches on five people known to the investigator, including about 3,000 tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle.

Outcome

Pending

The investigator was arrested on 9 September 2026 and charged with official misconduct and falsifying business records, both misdemeanors, with an appearance set in New Scotland Town Court for 24 September, and was suspended indefinitely pending further administrative action. An additional command staff member was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. The sheriff said Flock access is now limited to supervisors, with an Internal Affairs audit reviewed every 30 days. No outcome is reported in the source read.

What remains unknown

  • Who the five people were, beyond the former girlfriend, and how they knew the investigator.
  • When the searches were run. The sheriff said only that the investigator's access to the Flock system dated roughly to the end of 2024.
  • Whether any of the five people knew of the searches or experienced further consequences.
  • The outcome of the criminal case and of the administrative action.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Albany County Sheriff's Office says the investigator ran the unauthorized searches in the Flock license-plate-reader system. The plate-read records were the system's output, and the misuse was a human act. The source does not describe the readers as AI.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The sheriff's office says the investigator conducted more than 4,000 unauthorized searches involving five people known to the investigator, including tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle around 3,000 times and running four additional plates hundreds of times each.

Causal attribution. The sheriff's office's accusation as reported by CBS6 Albany; no audit record or charging document was inspected.

  • cbs6albany.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'is accused of conducting more than 4,000 unauthorized searches involving five people known to her. That includes tracking a former girlfriend’s vehicle around 3,000 times and running four additional plates hundreds of times each.'
Reported The sheriff said an outside source prompted the investigation; the investigator was arrested on 9 September 2026, charged with official misconduct and falsifying business records, both misdemeanors, and suspended indefinitely.

Causal attribution. The sheriff's statements as reported; the arrest date is the article's publication date (9 September 2026, a Wednesday), which the article gives as 'Wednesday'. The charges are allegations.

  • cbs6albany.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'said an outside source Friday prompted the investigation'; 'was arrested Wednesday'; 'is charged with official misconduct and falsifying business records. Both charges are misdemeanors.'; 'She has also been suspended indefinitely from the Sheriff’s Office, pending further administrative action.'
Reported The sheriff said the office has tightened restrictions on access to Flock data, and an additional command staff member was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.

Causal attribution. The sheriff's statements as reported.

  • cbs6albany.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'has tightened its restrictions on who has access to Flock data'; 'an additional command staff member was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation'

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 in English on 2026-10-05 (live; CBS6 Albany, WRGB; published 9 September 2026). Reports the sheriff's and district attorney's press conference. Applies to s1.

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

The investigator worked for the Albany County Sheriff's Office in New York and is due in New Scotland Town Court (CBS6 Albany). The five people are not identified and their residences are not stated, so affected_person_countries is left unknown.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-05: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional privacy case, consistent with the held Flock officer-misuse rows: the Albany County Sheriff's Office says a senior investigator ran more than 4,000 unauthorized Flock searches on five people known to the investigator, including about 3,000 tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle, and the investigator has been charged. The charges are allegations. The automated readers generated the plate-read records; the misuse is recorded as a human act. Neither the investigator nor the five people are named here.

People described

Five people known to the investigator, including a former girlfriend; none is identified

People reported harmed in this case

5 people

0 AI participants · 5 other people harmed

Five people known to the investigator, per the sheriff's office. The searches include a former girlfriend's vehicle (around 3,000) and four additional plates (hundreds each) (CBS6 Albany, 9 September 2026). Exact 5 as stated by the sheriff's office; the report does not say whose the four additional plates were.

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#location-tracking#new-york#albany-county#criminal-charges

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Albany County, New York: a senior sheriff's investigator was charged in September 2026, accused of more than 4,000 unauthorized Flock license-plate-reader searches on five people known to the investigator, including about 3,000 tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-albany-county-new-york-sheriffs-investigator-flock-alpr-4000-searches-former-girlfriend-charged

BibTeX

@misc{2026_albany_county_new_york_sheriffs_investigator_flock_alpr_4000_searches_former_girlfriend_charged,
  title = {Albany County, New York: a senior sheriff's investigator was charged in September 2026, accused of more than 4,000 unauthorized Flock license-plate-reader searches on five people known to the investigator, including about 3,000 tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-albany-county-new-york-sheriffs-investigator-flock-alpr-4000-searches-former-girlfriend-charged}
}

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