Indiana Police Officer Charged After Allegedly Running Hundreds of Camera Searches Tied to His Wife
A police officer in Georgetown, Indiana, has been arrested on allegations that he misused Flock camera searches hundreds of times, according to The Guardian. The officer, Justin Craig, was charged with official misconduct and two counts of fraud. The searches involved his wife and a previous acquaintance of hers.
The official misconduct charge is a felony, and the two fraud charges are misdemeanors, according to reporting by WHAS11. Craig lives in Greenville, Indiana, according to the Courier-Journal.
Flock is a company that supplies cameras and software to law enforcement agencies, and its cameras are used to search vehicle license plates. Craig is accused of searching his wife's license plate more than 80 times. He is also accused of searching the license plate of a previous acquaintance of his wife's nearly 250 times. The searches ran from January through July.
The case came to light after a Washington Post reporter called the Georgetown police chief with a tip, according to The Guardian. An internal review by the department found that Craig's searches were not connected to any police investigation. It also found that he had intentionally labeled the searches with reasons that made them appear justified. The labels included traffic infractions, narcotics, assault and battery, theft and stolen vehicles.
The scale of the system is large. Flock cameras number about 120,000 across the United States and conduct roughly 2 billion scans a month. The company provides its cameras and software to more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies and nearly 1,000 businesses, according to The Guardian.
Craig's attorney, Matthew Lemme, said the officer will file a motion to dismiss the charges. A motion to dismiss is a written request asking a court to end a case before it goes to trial.
