MPD's Internal Affairs tracked its own sworn officers with Flock plate readers

What the union asked for is ordinary access control: the same justification, logging and audit rules applied to officers at every rank ^[18]. It also said in its release that "the full capabilities of this system remain unknown" ^[16].

MPD is not treating the searches as an error. In a statement, the department said its "position is that the use of LPR in the misconduct investigation was appropriate" ^[3]. The same statement said the dispute with the union is going to arbitration ^[10]. According to the union, management denied its complaint and refused to investigate the managers who ran the searches ^[8]. On the day the grievance was denied, the department issued what the union described as "a new teletype restricting department-wide access" ^[9]. MPD declined to comment on those restrictions or on when they were issued ^[10].

Access was narrowed after the searches were defended, and the narrowing landed on everyone below the officials who ran the queries ^[9][8].

"A system with such broad and extensive capabilities requires not only significant guardrails but also full transparency with the public," said Pemberton, a high-ranking detective. "The MPD has provided neither." ^[6] In the same release he said: "Public trust cannot be built through secrecy about this technology, and officer trust cannot be built by tightening rules on the rank and file while refusing to investigate the officials who abuse the system." ^[17]

There is no known prior case of a police department using Flock ALPRs to monitor its own personnel ^[2]. Jake Laperruque, a surveillance expert at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said he had never seen a rank and file police union call this vociferously for the power police hold to be rolled back ^[19].

The customer base is moving faster than the DC grievance. Secure Justice, a digital rights nonprofit, counted more than 90 US cities and counties dropping Flock in August alone ^[13]. Set against more than 200 terminated contracts since 2021, that is roughly 45 percent of all terminations in a single month ^[14][23]. The nonprofit's own framing is that nearly half of the departments ending their Flock relationships did so in the past six weeks ^[14]. Austin police stopped using Flock under resident pressure in June 2025, and Cambridge, Evanston and Eugene followed ^[11]. Texas and Florida announced new state restrictions in late August and early September ^[12]. A Flock spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment ^[15].

The council is now asking the same questions the union asked internally. On September 14, Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, wrote to MPD Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll with 10 questions about how the department uses Flock data and why it needs the technology at all ^[21]. "The public deserves transparency and must understand how this technology is being used in our communities," Pinto said in a statement ^[22].