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NOPE
Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

Mooresville, North Carolina: a police officer is accused of searching the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 31 times to track her boyfriend's ex-wife; charged in August 2026 with accessing computers

According to Mooresville Police Chief Ron Campurciani, a monthly audit of the department's Flock license-plate-reader system found that one of its officers had accessed the system 31 times for personal use, to find information about and track the movements of her boyfriend's ex-wife. The chief said she accessed the cameras at least twice while off duty and logged most of the searches as motor vehicle infractions, and the department said she was not truthful about why she accessed the data. She was arrested on 5 August 2026 and charged with accessing computers, a misdemeanor, and court records show she was released on a $5,000 bond. The chief said the department was reviewing 10 other potential misuse cases and now requires officers to link an active case number to every search. The charge is an allegation.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
6 August 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 · 5 sources, 1 underlying account
6 claims: 6 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader camera system of the Mooresville Police Department, North Carolina, which the officer searched through her police access (police chief, as reported by ABC News, WBTV and Law&Crime)

What Happened

At a press conference on Wednesday 5 August 2026, Mooresville Police Chief Ron Campurciani said the department's audit of its Flock license-plate-reader system had found that one of its officers accessed the system 31 times for personal use. ABC News quotes the chief as saying she used the license-plate-reader cameras to find information and track her boyfriend's ex-wife. Law&Crime reports that the department conducts the audit each month. According to the chief, officers must enter a reason for each Flock search; she allegedly listed most of the 31 searches as motor vehicle infractions (WBTV reports 29 of the 31, with the other two logged as burglary or robbery), and at least twice she accessed the cameras while off duty. The department said she was not truthful about why she accessed the data (WLOS). She was arrested while on duty on 5 August and charged with accessing computers, a misdemeanor; WLOS reports that court records show her release on a $5,000 bond. WBTV reports that she was hired in January 2025 and remained employed as of 7 August. The chief said the department was examining 10 other potential misuse cases, of which three looked problematic, and that officers will be required to attach a case number to each search. Flock Safety said in a statement to ABC News that any misuse is unacceptable. The sources do not say what the searches returned, when they took place, or whether the ex-wife was told of them.

Reported harm

According to the Mooresville police chief, a police officer used the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 31 times to find information about and track her boyfriend's ex-wife; the officer is charged with a misdemeanor and the allegation has not been tried.

Outcome

Pending

The officer was arrested on 5 August 2026 while on duty and charged with accessing computers, a misdemeanor (Mooresville Police Department, via WLOS and WBTV). Court records show she was released on a $5,000 bond (WLOS), and ABC News reported a court date of 27 August 2026. WBTV reported on 7 August that she remained employed by the department and that the chief said any decision on termination rested with human resources. The chief said the department was reviewing 10 other potential cases of officer misuse, three of which looked problematic, and that officers must now link an active case number and answer additional prompts each time they use the system. No later court outcome was found in the sources read.

What remains unknown

  • When the 31 searches took place (WBTV reports the officer was hired in January 2025) and what they returned.
  • Whether the ex-wife was told of the searches or experienced further consequences.
  • The outcome of the 27 August 2026 court date and of the charge.
  • Whether the officer was later dismissed; reports headlined as a dismissal (QC News, NewsNation) could not be read.
  • The findings of the review of 10 other potential misuse cases.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Mooresville police chief says the officer accessed the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 31 times to find information about and track her boyfriend's ex-wife, and the department found the searches in its audit of that system (ABC News, WBTV, Law&Crime, WLOS). The automated readers capture vehicle information such as plates, car types and dates (ABC News); the location records retrieved about the ex-wife are the system's output, and the searches and their purpose are recorded as the officer's own acts. The sources do not describe the readers as AI.

6 claims: 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A Mooresville police officer accessed the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 31 times for personal use, to find information about and track her boyfriend's ex-wife; the department found the searches during an audit of the system.

Causal attribution. The account rests on the police chief's press conference and the department's statement; all outlets relay that one origin, so it stays reported. The charge has not been tried.

  • abcnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'conducting an audit of its Flock license plate reader system when it discovered'; 'accessed the system 31 times for personal use'; 'to find information and track her boyfriend'
  • wbtv.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'logged in 31 times to track and gather information on her boyfriend'
  • lawandcrime.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'an audit the department conducts each month of the Flock camera system'
  • wbtv.com(opens in new tab) context · English
    'allegedly misusing the department’s Flock safety camera system for personal gain'
Reported According to the chief, she accessed the cameras at least twice while off duty and entered false reasons for the searches, listing most of them (29 of 31, per WBTV) as motor vehicle infractions and the rest as burglary or robbery; the department said she was not truthful about why she accessed the data.

Causal attribution. The chief's and the department's account.

Reported She was arrested on 5 August 2026 and charged with accessing computers, a misdemeanor, and was released on a $5,000 bond; ABC News reported a court date of 27 August 2026.

Causal attribution. Charge from the department's statement; bond from court records as reported by WLOS. No court record was inspected.

  • wlos.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'was charged Aug. 5, 2026, with accessing computers, a misdemeanor'; 'Court records show she was released on a $5,000 bond.'
  • wbtv.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'was arrested while on duty, charged with computer access violations, and given a $5,000 secured bond'
  • abcnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'was arrested and charged Wednesday with accessing computers'; 'is due in court on Aug. 27'
Reported WBTV reported on 7 August 2026 that the officer, hired in January 2025, remained employed by the department and that the chief said any termination decision rested with human resources.

Causal attribution. WBTV's report as of 7 August; later reports headlined as a dismissal could not be read.

  • wbtv.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'who was hired in January 2025'; 'remains employed by the department as of this writing'; 'any final decision regarding her termination is up to human resources'
Reported The chief said the department was reviewing 10 other potential misuse cases, three of which looked problematic, and that officers must now link a case number to each search and answer additional prompts.

Causal attribution. The chief's statements at the press conference.

  • abcnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'looking at 10 other potential misuse cases'; 'will be required to attach a case number to show why they are using the cameras'
  • wbtv.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'three “look like they could be problematic”'; 'Officers must now link an active case number and answer additional prompts every time they use the system.'
Reported Flock Safety said in a statement that any misuse is unacceptable.

Causal attribution. Flock Safety's statement to ABC News.

Sources

5 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; Emily Shapiro, ABC News, 6 August 2026). Reports the chief's press conference of Wednesday 5 August. ABC11 and WWAY carry the same text and are not cited separately. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; Kelly Doty, WLOS, 7 August 2026). Relays the Mooresville Police Department's statement and the ABC News quote of the chief; adds a court-record detail (bond). Applies to s2.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; David Harris, Law&Crime, 7 August 2026). Its own account of the chief's press conference. Applies to s3.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; WBTV, 7 August 2026). Its own account of the chief's 5 August press conference, with the search-reason breakdown and employment status as of that day. Applies to s4.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; WBTV, 6 August 2026). Arrest-day report of the chief's statements and resident reactions. Applies to s5.

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

The officer served with the Mooresville Police Department in North Carolina and searched its Flock system; she was booked into the Iredell County Jail and charged in North Carolina (ABC News, WLOS). The ex-wife's residence is not stated; affected_person_countries US rests on the ex-wife's movements being tracked through the Mooresville department's North Carolina camera system.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-04: Published as a contextual case (made_claim_about) consistent with the held Flock officer-misuse rows: the Mooresville police chief says an officer searched the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 31 times to track her boyfriend's ex-wife, and she is charged with accessing computers. The tracking account is an allegation. The officer is not named here, and no source names the ex-wife.

People described

An adult, the ex-wife of the officer's boyfriend (not named in any source)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, the boyfriend's ex-wife, whom the chief says the officer tracked through the Flock system (ABC News, WBTV, Law&Crime). Exact 1. The 10 other potential misuse cases under review are not counted.

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#north-carolina#mooresville#iredell-county#criminal-charges

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Mooresville, North Carolina: a police officer is accused of searching the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 31 times to track her boyfriend's ex-wife; charged in August 2026 with accessing computers. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-mooresville-north-carolina-police-officer-flock-alpr-tracked-boyfriends-ex-wife-charged

BibTeX

@misc{2026_mooresville_north_carolina_police_officer_flock_alpr_tracked_boyfriends_ex_wife_charged,
  title = {Mooresville, North Carolina: a police officer is accused of searching the department's Flock license-plate-reader system 31 times to track her boyfriend's ex-wife; charged in August 2026 with accessing computers},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-mooresville-north-carolina-police-officer-flock-alpr-tracked-boyfriends-ex-wife-charged}
}

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