A new analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), based on audit logs from Flock Safety's Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems, has revealed that U.S. police departments are using these systems to search mass surveillance databases with absurd or nonsensical terms. In May 2025, an officer from the Goshen police department in Indiana conducted 6,474 searches across ALPR networks, involving 82,413 cameras, using "idk" (short for "I don't know") as the reason. This is not an isolated case—across the country, officers have justified sensitive data searches with terms like "LOL," "sexy," or by randomly typing on their keyboards. This practice is part of a documented series of abuses involving harassment, protest surveillance, and ethnic profiling. The EFF argues that these systems, sold as tools to combat serious crime, have instead become a mass surveillance network incompatible with a free society, as police use them more like a personal search engine than a law enforcement tool. Flock Safety is now facing significant public backlash, with reports of officers misusing its national network of surveillance cameras. At least 50 officers have been charged for abusive use, and the company's claims that its system only records vehicles have been challenged. The system, it turns out, can track and harass individuals. This revelation has further eroded public trust, especially after the EFF uncovered a case in 2025 where a sheriff's office officer in a Texas county used over 83,000 surveillance cameras to track a woman who had had an abortion without medical assistance. The officer queried 6,809 Flock Safety camera networks, including in states where abortion rights are protected by law. The EFF's analysis of the Flock Safety ALPR search logs shows that police across the country are conducting searches for reasons that are often nonsensical or trivial. Officers regularly query the Flock Safety database without providing legitimate justifications, violating civil liberties by using terms like "LOL," "LMAO," "sexy," and "idk" to access sensitive location data. In some cases, officers simply press random keys on their keyboards instead of clearly explaining the nature of their searches. Flock Safety claims to have improved its system by requiring officers to select a reason from a drop-down list, but this change merely allows officers to more easily conceal abusive searches under the guise of uniformity. The system does not require proof that the selected reason matches the actual purpose of the search. In the absence of a warrant requirement and with limited oversight, ALPR databases have created a culture of unlimited access to personal location data. This has enabled police to treat a mass surveillance network as their personal search engine, tracking ordinary citizens' movements for minor complaints, personal whims, and sometimes simply for fun. The abusive use of ALPR systems is not new; it has been reported for over a year, with officers using the systems to harass ex-partners, monitor protests, and track individuals seeking reproductive healthcare. These abuses are often uncovered through documents called "network audits," which are long lists of all searches conducted by an agency. Even a small police department can have records containing millions of searches from thousands of external agencies across the United States.