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Milwaukee Police Detective Tehrangi N. Chapman was criminally charged after an internal audit revealed he misused the department's Flock Safety license plate reader system to stalk and track individuals for personal reasons.
A Milwaukee County criminal complaint alleges that Police Detective Tehrangi Chapman used Flock Safety license-plate readers 20 times to track two people from January 2024 to January 2025, entering "test" or "training" as search reasons. The complaint says Chapman later admitted using Flock to track both people in violation of Milwaukee Police Department policy. He was charged with misconduct in public office; a separate count concerned an unauthorized GPS tracker.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Also classified as
The system was used to obtain non-public, highly sensitive location and movement data of private individuals without their consent.
The detective used the Flock Safety system to stalk and track specific victims for personal reasons, representing a targeted exploitation and abuse of power for personal advantage.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The incident was caused by a human operator (a police detective) intentionally misusing a deployed AI-powered surveillance system for unauthorized personal tracking.
Added categories peak at 2: Minor (Psychological Harm, Direct)
A Milwaukee police detective misused the department's Flock Safety license plate reader system to stalk individuals for personal reasons. While representing a serious abuse of authority and violation of civil liberties, the incident is a localized law enforcement misconduct issue with minor national security implications.
The Flock Safety system operates as an automated license plate reader that performs the specific, well-defined function of capturing, matching, and storing license plate images based on direct inputs, acting as a surveillance tool for human operators.
High Risk: The system is an automated license plate reader used in law enforcement applications, which is explicitly classified as high-risk under the EU AI Act.
The primary function of the Flock Safety system is to capture, read, and track vehicle license plates for law enforcement purposes.
The assessment is based on highly detailed legal documents, including a formal criminal complaint with specific dates, counts, victim designations, and audit details, leaving very little ambiguity about the facts of the misuse.
None
Technology
ALPR System Functionality
Flock Safety cameras continuously capture and store searchable location data.
Commercial GPS Tracking Devices
Commercially available Optimus GPS trackers allowed unauthorized vehicle tracking.
Data Inputs
Falsified Search Justifications
Officer entered false reasons like 'training' or 'test' to run searches.
Human Factors
Intentional Abuse of Power
Detective tracked individuals for personal reasons, ignoring privacy boundaries.
Stalking and Harassment Motives
Detective installed GPS trackers and queried ALPR to monitor victims.
Double Standard in Ethics
Internal affairs investigator abused system while investigating another's abuse.
Process and Methods
Weak Initial Audit Systems
Audits were only triggered retroactively after high-profile abuse scandals.
Superficial Validation of Queries
System accepted generic terms like 'training' without active validation.
Inadequate Access Controls
Individual credentials allowed unrestricted searches without real-time approval.
Management
Failure of Internal Accountability
Internal Affairs division failed to preemptively detect rogue behavior.
Delayed Action on System Abuse
Policy enforcement occurred after multiple officers had already abused data.
AI system involved
Identified by automated extraction; can differ from the alleged developers above.
