Wisconsin deputies ran 100+ Flock searches on man who filmed a traffic stop

A federal lawsuit alleges that the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin weaponized Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader network against Navy veteran Napoleon Jones after he lawfully recorded a traffic stop from a private parking lot in May 2025. Jones was pulled over a second time, dragged from his car, and arrested for ‘resisting and obstructing’ — then released hours later with no charges. An internal memo later confirmed a supervisor had told the arresting deputy the stop itself was illegal and that he had no authority to demand Jones’s ID.

The surveillance surfaced almost by accident: Jones’s attorney noticed the sheriff’s office had a Flock photo of his client’s white BMW dated 25 days after the arrest. Digging further revealed more than 100 searches for the vehicle in the weeks that followed, some run by the arresting deputy himself. Under deposition, officers said a lieutenant ordered the searches in connection with Jones’s citizen complaint — despite no camera at the arrest scene and no allegation of any crime. Jones’s amended complaint argues the queries violated the county’s own Flock user agreement, which requires a legitimate law enforcement purpose.

The case lands amid growing public backlash against police ALPR deployments and highlights how thinly governed these systems are in practice. The abuse here isn’t the tabloid-style stalking that has dogged Flock elsewhere; it’s the quieter, arguably more troubling scenario of officers turning a dragnet surveillance tool on a citizen as apparent retaliation for protected First Amendment activity — and doing so with little apparent oversight or audit friction.