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Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

Shively, Kentucky: a police officer was charged in August 2026 over 2,048 searches of the department's Flock license-plate-reader system that court records say tracked the mother of the officer's child, 241 of them, by the police chief's account, while a protective order was in place

A patrol officer with the Shively Police Department in Kentucky was arrested in August 2026 and charged with five counts of official misconduct and five counts of unlawful access to a computer. Court records cited by CNN say the officer ran 2,048 searches of the department's Flock license-plate-reader system from January into May to track two vehicles registered to the mother of the officer's child, in Kentucky and Indiana. According to the court records, the officer harassed the woman and made threatening comments during that period, and she sought a protective order. The police chief said 241 of the searches were run while that order was in place. Officials said at the news conference that the officer had entered a drug investigation as the reason for the searches, although the woman was not the subject of one. An audit tool supplied by Flock flagged the searches to the department, which arrested the officer the next day and suspended the officer without pay. Spectrum News reported on 31 August 2026 that the officer had pleaded not guilty.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
Jan 2026 to May 2026
Reported
26 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 · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader system operated by the Shively Police Department, Kentucky, searched by the officer through department access; the searches were flagged by Flock's AI-based audit tool (police chief and court records as reported by CNN and Louisville Public Media)

What Happened

The Shively Police Department in Kentucky announced at a news conference on 26 August 2026 that it had arrested one of its patrol officers, an officer since 2022. CNN, citing court records, reported that investigators found the officer had conducted 2,048 Flock searches from January into May to track two vehicles registered to the mother of the officer's child, in Kentucky and Indiana. According to the court records, during that period the officer harassed the woman and made threatening comments, prompting her to file for an order of protection. The police chief said investigators determined that 241 of the searches happened while the order was in place, from 17 April to 6 May; Louisville Public Media reported that the order was issued by an Indiana court. Officials said the officer had listed a drug or narcotics investigation as the reason for the searches, although the woman was not the subject of any such investigation. The chief said Flock's AI-based audit tool flagged the searches to the department on a Monday; the officer lost access to the system, and less than 24 hours later police determined the searches had no legitimate law enforcement purpose and made the arrest. The officer was charged with five counts of official misconduct and five counts of unlawful access to a computer and was suspended without pay. Spectrum News reported on 31 August 2026 that the officer had pleaded not guilty, and that an internal review had found the department's previous audits of Flock searches lacked proper documentation and did not meet department standards. The department said it would require a case number for searches and have supervisors check flagged searches weekly. The sources read do not say whether the woman knew of the searches before the arrest. The charges are allegations.

Reported harm

According to court records cited by CNN, a police officer ran 2,048 searches of the department's Flock license-plate-reader system to track two vehicles registered to the mother of the officer's child, and harassed and threatened her during the same period; the police chief said 241 searches were run while her protective order was in place.

Outcome

Pending

The officer was arrested the day after Flock's audit tool flagged the searches and was charged with five counts of official misconduct and five counts of unlawful access to a computer (court records, per CNN). The department suspended the officer without pay pending the criminal investigation and an internal review. Spectrum News reported on 31 August 2026 that the officer had pleaded not guilty, was out on bond and had a next court date in early October. The department said an internal review found its previous audits of Flock searches lacked proper documentation; it now requires a case number for searches and weekly supervisor review of flagged activity.

What remains unknown

  • Whether the woman knew of the searches before the arrest, and what she experienced beyond the harassment and threats alleged in the court records.
  • What the searches returned and how the officer used the results.
  • The outcome of the criminal case and of the internal review of the officer.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Court records and the police chief, as reported by CNN and Louisville Public Media, say the officer ran the searches in the Shively Police Department's Flock license-plate-reader system. The plate-read records that located the woman's vehicles were the system's output, and the misuse was a human act. The sources describe as AI the Flock audit tool that flagged the searches; they do not describe the readers themselves as AI.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Court records say investigators found the officer conducted 2,048 Flock searches from January into May 2026 to track two vehicles registered to the mother of the officer's child, in Kentucky and Indiana.

Causal attribution. Court records and the police chief's statements as reported by three outlets (one group); the court records were not inspected. The exact figure 2,048 is CNN's; the year comes from Louisville Public Media's 'this year' in an August 2026 article.

  • cnn.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'had conducted 2,048 Flock searches from January into May to track two vehicles registered to the victim, his child’s mother, in Kentucky and Indiana, court records show'
  • lpm.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'conduct more than 2,000 searches on license plates belonging to the woman he shares a child with, according to court records'; 'tracked the woman from January through May of this year'
  • spectrumnews1.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'made more than 2,000 searches to track the movements of the mother of his child in Kentucky and Indiana over a five-month period, according to court documents'
Reported According to the court records, the officer harassed the woman and made threatening comments during the period of the searches, prompting her to file for an order of protection, and the police chief said 241 searches were run while that order was in place, from 17 April to 6 May.

Causal attribution. Allegations in court records and the chief's statements as reported; no court record or protective order was inspected.

  • cnn.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'harassed the victim and made threatening comments, prompting her to file an order of protection against him, according to the court records'; 'Investigators determined 241 Flock searches happened while that order of protection was in place, from April 17 to May 6'
  • lpm.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'More than 200 of the searches occurred during a time in which the woman'; 'had received an Indiana court issued protective order against him'
Reported Officials said the officer listed a drug or narcotics investigation as the reason for the searches, although the woman was not the subject of any such investigation.

Causal attribution. Officials' statements at the news conference as reported by CNN.

  • cnn.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'listed the reason for the investigation as a drug or narcotics investigation, even though the woman who was targeted was not the subject of any such investigation'
Reported Flock's AI-based audit tool flagged the searches to the department, and the officer was arrested the next day, charged with five counts of official misconduct and five counts of unlawful access to a computer, and suspended without pay.

Causal attribution. The chief's account and court records as reported; the charges are allegations.

  • cnn.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The AI tool flagged the activity on Monday and by Tuesday,'; 'charged with five counts of official misconduct in the fifth degree and five counts of unlawful access to a computer in the fourth degree, court records show'; 'is currently suspended without pay, pending the outcome of the criminal investigation and internal review'
  • lpm.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'artificial intelligence-based monitoring system alerted Shively Police on Monday that'; 'Less than 24 hours later, police determined the searches had no legitimate law enforcement purpose and they arrested him at the Shively Police Department.'
Reported By 31 August 2026 the officer had pleaded not guilty, and the department said an internal review found its previous audits of officers' Flock searches lacked proper documentation and that it would require a case number for searches.

Causal attribution. Spectrum News 1's report of the chief's statement and a department release.

  • spectrumnews1.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'has pleaded not guilty to five counts of official misconduct and five counts of unlawful access to a computer'; 'Flock searches lacked proper documentation and did not meet department standards'; 'require a case number for searches'

Sources

3 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 2026-10-05 (live; CNN; published 26 August 2026). Reports the police chief's news conference and court records. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-05 (live; Louisville Public Media, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting; published 26 August 2026). Reports the same news conference and court records. Applies to s2.

Read in English on 2026-10-05 (live; Spectrum News 1; published 31 August 2026). Reports the chief's later statement, a department release and court documents. Applies to s3.

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

The officer served with the Shively Police Department in Kentucky and was charged there (CNN, Louisville Public Media). Louisville Public Media says the officer used the readers to track and harass a woman in Kentucky and Indiana, and CNN says her two vehicles were tracked in Kentucky and Indiana, which places her in the United States during the events; her residence is not stated.

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: court records and the Shively police chief, as reported by CNN, Louisville Public Media and Spectrum News 1, say an officer ran 2,048 searches of the department's Flock license-plate-reader system to track the mother of the officer's child, including while a protective order was in place. The charges are allegations and the officer has pleaded not guilty. The automated readers generated the plate-read records; the misuse is recorded as a human act. Neither the officer nor the woman is named here.

People described

A woman, the mother of the officer's child, not identified in the sources read

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person: the woman whose two vehicles were searched (court records as reported by CNN, Louisville Public Media and Spectrum News). Exact 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#location-tracking#kentucky#shively#protective-order#criminal-charges#audit-tool

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Shively, Kentucky: a police officer was charged in August 2026 over 2,048 searches of the department's Flock license-plate-reader system that court records say tracked the mother of the officer's child, 241 of them, by the police chief's account, while a protective order was in place. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-shively-kentucky-police-officer-flock-alpr-tracked-mother-of-child-2048-searches-charged

BibTeX

@misc{2026_shively_kentucky_police_officer_flock_alpr_tracked_mother_of_child_2048_searches_charged,
  title = {Shively, Kentucky: a police officer was charged in August 2026 over 2,048 searches of the department's Flock license-plate-reader system that court records say tracked the mother of the officer's child, 241 of them, by the police chief's account, while a protective order was in place},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-shively-kentucky-police-officer-flock-alpr-tracked-mother-of-child-2048-searches-charged}
}

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