10.10.2025
2 min
611
Law enforcement in Johnson County, Texas, used data from its network of automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras to track a woman who had an abortion. Investigators described the actions as a “missing person search,” but new documents show that it was actually an attempted stalking. According to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Johnson County Sheriff Adam King requested ALPR data for a “death investigation” after relatives reported the woman had had an abortion. While police said the search was for “safety reasons,” the report said the reason was “to find the woman who had an abortion.”
Flock Safety, a company that provides the license plate recognition technology, confirmed its involvement in the searches but denied allegations that the technology was misused. Police said they acted after a family member “was concerned for the woman’s life.”
However, an affidavit obtained by the EFF proves that this explanation is false. The document states that the search was conducted as part of an “investigation into the death of an unborn child” and did not indicate a medical emergency.
Flock Safety data shows that officers conducted two mass searches of the ALPR database — one of which covered 17,000 cameras, the other – more than 83,000 surveillance devices in 7,000 networks. The report labels the search as “death investigation / had an abortion, search for female.”
After collecting evidence, including photos, medication packaging and documentation from FedEx, the police contacted the district attorney, who declined to press charges, admitting that there was no crime.
The United States remains in a state of legal chaos after the overturning of the *Roe v. Wade* decision in 2022. Texas is among the states with the strictest abortion restrictions, where even self-medication can be considered a criminal offense.
Flock Safety, which operates a network of more than 83,000 cameras across the country, is not the first company to be at the center of scandals over police use of surveillance systems for questionable investigations.
The incident in Texas shows how mass surveillance tools designed to fight crime are being turned into weapons of privacy control. The case of the use of ALPR against a woman after an abortion highlights the risk of abuse when technology skirts the boundaries of law and privacy.
