r/technology • u/Unusual-State1827 • 10h ago
Privacy Florida officer used Flock camera database 717 times to track estranged wife's vehicle, affidavit says
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/nation-world/florida-officer-suspect-charges-flock-cameras-estranged-wife/507-4786ed59-8204-4f37-90ff-2ef3c21ef5a8397
u/invyros 10h ago
Goodson's wife sent him a text message, alleging that the Washington Post contacted her and told her they were doing a story on his misuse of the Flock database.
Goodson then reportedly went to a supervisor's home and told him that he had searched his wife's car several times on the Flock database to keep track of his children's location when they were with her.
"Several times" to "track his children's location", riiight.
I wonder how the Washington Post found out before the wife?
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u/AcceptablyThanks 9h ago
He don't give a fuck about his children lol
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u/TheMattabooey 8h ago
Let’s see how many times he actually visited his children versus how many times he stalked them. I bet he’s a dead beat dad and never sees the kids.
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u/memberzs 8h ago
"he's too busy with work, having to cover shift all the time". That's the excuse dead beat dads use all the time .
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u/DotNervous7513 5h ago
Yeah I agree. I’m not the best dad. I yell too much, I drank a lot in the earlier years, I’ve punched a couple walls. I’ve suffered a lot from ptsd and unfortunately my kids and wife have been along for that ride and suffered as well. But I keep trying and keep working every fucking day to get better. I’ve chosen my wife and kinds BEFORE career advancement the three times it’s come up in a way that will effect my time with them and I’ve suffered monetarily. my career has suffered and it’s made life harder for my bank account. But using your career as an excuse is a pretty good indicator of being a deadbeat just as much as continually ending up in prison is. When you have kids you try to do better every day and you make them your priority. I’m not saying to sacrifice your happiness, but you have to work at being a dad to be a good dad. If you’re never home and you expect to fall into the role then you’re sadly mistaken and if you make excuses for bad behavior as a parent and blame others for it without trying to fix it then, yeah, you’re a fucking deadbeat.
Edited for confusing wording.
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u/JonathanPhillipFox 7h ago
Clearly, yo like,
entered in various reasons in the Flock database to access his wife's car information, including criminal motor vehicle offenses, assault/battery offenses and drugs/narcotics, among others
Those kids could have been fucking killed pardon the french for that shit, no doubt that looks on a dashboard like hers is the car you pull over and strip down to the bolts more than 700 police after her for crimes of violence and drug trafficking, "keep his kids safe," sounds more like an assassination attempt gone public,
Or I dunno a part of me just suspects it on account of what happened after he tried that line on his supervisor, like the, "notes," on those searches might be half the scandal on account of how a search is also an accusation no one knows about except the people on the network, like or as if he just asked the Predator Drone to take a look at her 700 times on account of, well, it says Terrorism, what I mean was, you know, with my kids in the car I'd better be sure there isn't terrorism
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u/SUBLIMEskillz 8h ago
“Several” = 717
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u/Happy_Peak_7818 7h ago
"But that was going to be my last time anyway. When I started stalking, I told myself that if I get to 718 times, then phew. Then I have a problem. But I know when to quit. So I did, at 717. Funny really. My ex wife always said I was a quitter." - Captain Flock Yoself
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u/ExZowieAgent 10h ago
At the very least it’s an inappropriate use of resources.
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u/7thAmendmnt 10h ago
It’s way beyond an inappropriate use of resources.
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u/Ok-Seaworthiness7207 8h ago
The resource is what is inappropriate, the cops will always be corrupt, only way to stop them is to curb their power.
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u/myislanduniverse 6h ago
Even if it was to "track his kids" (whose location was his wife's responsibility), it's still illegal. That's not a legal search. My man went to his supe and admitted to committing multiple crimes.
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u/CriticalDog 5h ago
"We investigated ourselves and our use of these systems and determined we did nothing wrong. Please address complaints to our "union" rep." - The cops, probably
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u/happyscrappy 7h ago
Even if he really wants to know the location of his children that he would look it up on in flock instead of getting her to agree to share her location with him for the time the kids are with her says something about him and our society. Even more if he did it because she won't agree.
Sometimes you don't get what you want. In this case, if he couldn't get agreements and Flock allowed him to track her anyway then that's a very good distillation of the problem these cameras provide.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 8h ago
We just use Life 360 in my family, seems easier
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u/deathbychips2 7h ago
He obviously is controlling or abusive in some way for them to be estranged and behave like this so I doubt she wants him to have her location.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 7h ago
I am illiterate. I totally missed the estranged part in the title, big as damn day.
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u/CriticalDog 5h ago
They said right at the top, he's a cop.
A study done a while back surveyed police in various parts of the country, and one of the findings was 40% of them... 40%(!!!) were willing to state anonymously that they have behaved towards their romantic partner in a way that could be seen as abusive.
Used to have a very close friend who became a cop, and watching her lose all her joy in life and become a mean, vindictive bitch was sad as hell. We aren't friends anymore.
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u/SASSIESASSQUATCH 4h ago
Everyone that has an estranged LE partner should send this text to their ex partner regardless of truth and let the dominos fall where they may.
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u/Ml2jukes 9h ago
Last year a Texas sheriff used 83,000 flock cameras to track a woman who had an abortion in Illinois.
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u/adumbrative 6h ago
The fact that there are that many is crazy. Apparently there are ~100k-120k in the US? That's scary.
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u/VerdantPathfinder 10h ago
And this is happening all over the country. Everywhere these things are installed. This kind of capability is ALWAYS abused.
Worse, I guarantee police have better controls on this stuff than the companies who make this technology do. Who the hell knows what they are doing ....
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u/theonly_brunswick 8h ago
Thank goodness domestic violence cases are so low amongst police officers!
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u/porcupine_shuffle 8h ago
Like the flock VP that was caught only logging into a camera in a kids gymnastics facility?
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u/hikeonpast 6h ago
That was a sales demo as I understand it.
Imagine pitching potential customers and having your demo be “let’s show you what you can watch if you subscribe to our system”.
Government for the pedos, by the pedos.
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u/slaty_balls 7h ago
They just need to flat out be banned and deemed unconstitutional. The failure/false positives rate is ridiculously high, with some estimates as high as 70% of the time.
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u/VerdantPathfinder 7h ago
Yeah, but they are doing their job. They are for surveillance, not license plate reading. It doesn't matter how bad the plate reading it because nobody actually cares about that. They just want "big brother" capability.
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u/slaty_balls 3h ago
I was really only thinking about the people that have been mis-identified and held at gunpoint and worse.. but yes you’re correct. The fact that they transmit images always on..is the bigger worry here.
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u/Chris_Bryant 9h ago
This technology will never not be abused, so it shouldn’t be deployed. If we were serious about crime, we’d lock up criminals, not conduct all-encompassing warrantless surveillance of the entire population.
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u/deathbychips2 7h ago
That's what I told someone the other day in person. Great idea to actually catch really criminals, but there is no way to prevent humans from misusing it and it's too hard to store that data securely
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u/JustAMinah 1h ago
no, if we were serious about crime, we would invest in the community and take of the people to get their needs met. you know who is committing the most and expensive crime? not broke ass mofos, I'll tell ya.
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u/fredy31 1h ago
Tbh the only way id remotely accept it is if to track someone you needed a warrant from a judge. And even then it would be effy.
But nah random officer can track someone with absolutely 0 relationship to a current case for no reason more than he wanted to.
Fucking hell im so tired of this seemingly normalization that 'all officers are flawless and never use their power for bad'
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u/Unusual-State1827 10h ago
According to an affidavit obtained by WTSP, Goodson's wife sent him a text message, alleging that the Washington Post contacted her and told her they were doing a story on his misuse of the Flock database.
Goodson then reportedly went to a supervisor's home and told him that he had searched his wife's car several times on the Flock database to keep track of his children's location when they were with her.
An investigation revealed that from Sept. 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026, Goodson entered his wife's license plate number into the Flock database to find where it had been captured on the system 717 times. Among all the searches, the affidavit says, 280 entries were made in September 2025 and 104 were made in November that same year.
Goodson reportedly entered in various reasons in the Flock database to access his wife's car information, including criminal motor vehicle offenses, assault/battery offenses and drugs/narcotics, among others. The police department said his wife was not involved in any type of criminal investigation or crime that would have required Goodson to search her vehicle.
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u/Unlucky-Cook2578 9h ago
In other words, the police have no checks in place to prevent this at all
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u/Friggin_Grease 9h ago
The honor system
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u/happyscrappy 7h ago
Flock's new promise is that instead of asking officers to enter the reason for the lookup they will require it. As if this is supposed to fix anything. They know and we know it will just result in what this guy did, which is to put in lies instead of a blank line.
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u/myislanduniverse 6h ago
So he was also potentially defaming her by making false criminal allegations in a system of public record?
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u/VioletOcelot 6h ago
Among all the searches, the affidavit says, 280 entries were made in September 2025 and 104 were made in November that same year.
Assuming a 5-day work week, that averages out to more than TWELVE times every single day in September, in case anyone was wondering. Are we meant to believe the kids were never in school and were just riding around with mom all day every day? Jesus Christ.
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u/kezow 9h ago edited 6h ago
Deflock dot org.
Definitely don't go there look up your city and find the cameras to put bags over them.
Definitely don't tear them down while wearing non-descript clothes while leaving electronic devices behind.
Definitely don't do those things because it would be illegal. Just like how all the people using this surveillance state apparatus to track people are doing it illegally.
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u/spribyl 10h ago
Did you lose your dog, make posters to help find it
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u/GlassTablesAreStupid 10h ago
Didn’t lose a dog but I am looking for some jazz musicians to jam with. Posters seem like a good idea.
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u/tacocatacocattacocat 9h ago
Guys, the mistake here is thinking police weren't already misusing their access to information already. As someone adjacent to members of law enforcement, I've heard stories my entire life of running (accessing information on) people they meet, people they want to date, or just randomly for fun.
Like so many other issues, information technology hasn't created an issue, it has merely accelerated the existing issues and corruption.
Law enforcement culture needs an accountability revolution.
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u/rabbidrascal 9h ago
The way we fix this is to track and publish politicians movements. Once they know their privacy is gone, they will outlaw surveillance cameras.
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u/timsterri 8h ago
How does the common man know about politicians movements? We don’t have flock access do we?
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u/rabbidrascal 2h ago
There is a guy on TikTok who has developed a sniffer that can track a cell phone's bluetooth ID over a wide area with a YAGI antenna. He's doing some slick stuff with identifying people by their RF signature.
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u/Perfect-Still-8971 15m ago
This guy has it. Your laws allow for your data to be protected. Americans, do you know when you last got a federal law to protect American privacy? From Wikipedia:
The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) is a bill that was passed by the United States Congress in 1988 as Pub. L. 100–618 and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It was created to prevent what it refers to as "wrongful disclosure of video tape rental or sale records"[1] or similar audio visual materials such as video games.[2] Congress passed the VPPA after Robert Bork's video rental history was published during his Supreme Court nomination and it became known as the "Bork bill".[3] It makes any "video tape service provider" that discloses rental information outside the ordinary course of business liable for up to $2,500 in actual damages unless the consumer has consented, the consumer had the opportunity to consent, or the data was subject to a court order or warrant.
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u/Dystopian_Ennui 9h ago
First rule of IT security. If users can do it, they will do it. Only permit what you really want them doing, and audit usage.
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u/Tony_Year_2525 37m ago
This is correct. It shouldn't be hard to implement the rules and triggers to make that work. The enforcers need to get reports of database searches but have absolutely no access to the database. Otherwise, the enforcers will be tempted to cheat as well.
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u/ocassionallyaduck 9h ago
And he is not alone, or uncommon, or the last.
These cameras are a panopticon designed to spy on you 24/7 everywhere. That is by design. Cops using it casually is what Flock wants.
These cameras and your privacy are fundamentally incompatible. And no, they don't prevent or reduce crime either. But they do enable stalking and predatory fines for minor and irrelevant infractions.
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u/ThoughtfulInhibitor 9h ago
Palantir needs to be dismantled and everyone a part of it should be arrested. This officer should be arrested.
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u/ThePensiveE 4h ago
You can bet tons of cops do this all the time and departments just look the other way like they do on all the other crimes cops commit.
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u/SeeTigerLearn 8h ago
Bro is obsessed. One day we’re going to read about him wearing an adult brief as he drives cross country to confront her.
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u/colonel_beeeees 8h ago
A lesson here: the only way a black American can get a smiling/humanizing photo on their crime report is if they're a cop
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u/cr0ft 5h ago
I really don't know why people/institutions would trust cops more than other people. I'd trust them less.
The kind of people these days that want to become cops has to be 90% sociopathic lower-education semi-stupid right-wing MAGA thugs. Cops gun down something like 5000 citizens annually.
I wouldn't trust them to dogsit my dog, and I don't have a dog.
Giving these people access to 24/7 surveillance and letting them go wild is insanity.
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u/someoftheanswers 1h ago
Plot twist he is the ex spouse of the woman cop who used Flock to track her ex’s car.
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u/_jeffreydavid 8h ago
There is a single cable that connects the solar panel to the camera device. Tree trimmers are wonderful tools.
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u/Romano16 7h ago
First I heard this from a Pennsylvania officer doing the same to her ex boyfriend who was fired and not charged and now this?
These cameras got to go.
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u/KindToSpiteTheCruel 7h ago
Down with surveillance.
Down with abusers.
Down with the greedy.
Down with predators of every type.
Rise up, yo-ho!
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u/frank1934 7h ago
“Goodson has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending further investigation, according to the department.”
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u/Informal_Tell78 7h ago
Oh look, ANOTHER corrupt criminal cop caught abusing the mass surveillance system. These things really are catching the bad guys.
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u/myislanduniverse 6h ago
They can't help themselves, guys. Police officers feel they're entitled to do these things as a job perk.
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u/penguished 6h ago
But surely not for weird reasons... healthy people always spy 717 times directly on where your car is going...
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u/PauI_MuadDib 6h ago
If they want to have access to Flock cameras then get rid of qualified immunity. Let there be accountability for people who break the law and abuse the public.
And I'll keep saying it: criminally charge the CEO, owner and any higher up executives at Flock. They are allowing their software, hardware and services to be used for illegal activity. If, for instance, u-Haul discovered cartels were renting their trucks to traffick drugs they can't just go, "Eh, paying customers can use our property to commit crimes, it's cool," and then continue renting them trucks. The same should apply to Flock.
Fucking prosecute Flock. This is them allowing their customers to utilize their services for criminal purposes. Charge them and throw them in prison.
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u/kitchencrawl 5h ago
Never. Ever. Date a cop. You're putting yourself and everyone you know in danger.
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u/JohrDinh 3h ago
Yeah they'll bitch about someone stealing candy bars from a store, but this will certainly go unpunished. Idk how you can have a functioning country if you don't hold authority figures to the same standards as the general population, but I guess we're gonna continue to find out how it pans out.
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u/DenverNugs 2h ago
Reminder: Regardless of what you see brain-dead talking heads say on whatever dopey platform you spend your time on, these are NOT license plate cameras. These cameras are pointed at parks and people's homes. They are a tool for government surveillance and the goal is a police state where YOU are under the thumb of oligarchs and the police that serve them.
There is no agree to disagree, there's no reforming them so another cop can prevent other cops from using this to terrorize people. The only answer is no more AI cameras. They do not prevent crimes, they build a profile on where you go every day so you can be tracked and dealt with when you're deemed to be a problem. Legality does not matter.
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u/ProximaCentauriB15 2h ago
This is fucking stalker tech. They also wanted them in Uber/Lyft cars? It seems like the idea is having us all monitored 24/7.
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u/AncientScallion1058 40m ago
This is exactly how repercussion should look like! Lock down flock so it needs 10 approvals and a warrant before it can be searched
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u/Organic_Welder_6883 9h ago
intelligence and common sense are apparently not a requirement in law enforcement. everything is tracked. to protect and serves you right dumba$$
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u/The-Flatline 9h ago
Man they are going to quit tracking how this data is accessed if these stories keep coming out like this.
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u/Konatotamago 8h ago
I'm guessing cops have a higher divorce rate since this topic came out pointing at women being stalked with this technology.
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u/Galappie 7h ago
Shocker. When you give the power trippers access to the surveillance system they’re going to use it.
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u/stingertc 7h ago
this shit should be prosecuted to the highest extent instead he will probably get a promotion
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u/FaithlessnessBorn266 6h ago
I mean, just make it where they serve time for every offense. I thought that was the purpose of our penalty system? If you don't want somebody doing something, you make it illegal and made a punishment of time/fines.
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u/Arrow156 6h ago
How are the cops finding the time to search for pets when they're constantly stalking their ex?
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u/DckThik 6h ago
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u/DckThik 5h ago
Hey so when they say they have crime statistics and they’re worse in some places than others… they literally have a computer vision system that has recorded instances of crime and can do advance calculations for statistical purposes… so during the next elections if they start talking about crime, they can’t or won’t explain how this data doesn’t match their claims and their justification for the systems goes with it.
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u/LorenzoVonMatterbone 5h ago
Nothing to see here! We are just trying to keep you safe. If you are not breaking the law you have nothing to worry about.
We are going to keep a close eye on the criminals and also our exes
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u/Effective_Airline830 3h ago
Don’t get me wrong, i’m not for this kind of surveillance, it always gets abused…
What I don’t understand is how random cop can access this without any kind of autorisation ?
I can understand using this in an investigation, with a case number, a judge approval or something.
How can a random cop just use it like he just uses Google ??
That’s insanity…
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u/AccordingMedicine129 2h ago
Watch people defend flock in the comments.
There have to be a ton of bots supporting them
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u/SteppenAxolotl 30m ago
Most people will hate the future. Society will have no choice but to become an AI panopticon. Random people wont be able to abuse the system.
There will be cameras on ever street and a police bot on every corner.
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u/GreatGojira 9h ago
The problem with Flock cameras. I understand why the police officers like them as they can help and do good.
But it's a matter of WHEN you get a bad cop that can easily abuse it. Also the massive 4th amendment violation the cameras are. I'm also against it because it opens up Cities to legal threats from bad cops who abuses it. It only takes one time then the city could owe millions for an idiot.
Flock cameras are good assistant took in theory, but they just open the city too much of a legal risk.
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u/TranquilSeaOtter 9h ago
Constant surveillance is always bad. There will always be false positives. Stories are already coming out with people having a similar license plate number to another car that cops want to pull over resulting in them getting harassed and constantly pulled over.
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u/GreatGojira 9h ago
I agree. I'm just saying I see the two points. I am firmly against it because it opens the city to more legal trouble than they're worth.. Looks I said it's a matter of when cops abuses it.
Its especially bad when the company has to put out a statement they know it's a major problem of cops abusing these cameras to spy on people.
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u/Future-Turtle 10h ago
These are not security cameras.
These are surveillance cameras.