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By comparison, one of the Houston Police Department’s most frequent Flock users conducted only 361 searches a week, according to the same data. An Angelina County grand jury indicted Klein last week on 100 felony counts of misuse of official information related to the Flock license plate reader system, according to local reporting. He was arrested and booked into the Angelina County Jail on August 20, with bail set at $700,000.
In response to the findings, Lufkin Police Chief Travis Brazil said the department has suspended its use of Flock entirely while internal affairs officers conduct an investigation. A second Lufkin officer has been placed on administrative leave following the investigation, according to the chief’s statement. His profile shows he conducted more searches than any other officer in the Lufkin Police Department.
Lufkin is now about the seventh Texas law enforcement agency in recent months to investigate allegations of officer misconduct related to Flock, according to the Chron. Several cases have involved allegations that officers used the network to stalk people in their personal lives, underscoring the growing privacy concerns citizens frequently associate with Flock.
A Lufkin, Texas police officer has been indicted on 100 felony counts after an investigation into his use of Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader system revealed an extraordinary volume of searches, including nearly 3,500 lookups of a single licence plate. According to court records and audit logs reviewed by the Houston Chronicle and local Texas outlets, 32-year-old Officer Zachary Anthony Klein conducted more than 45,000 searches over roughly 200 days, far exceeding typical usage patterns in the department. The database also reveals that Klein looked up the same four licence plates thousands of times, with one plate searched a total of 3,470 times in the course of a year. The City of Lufkin originally approved the Flock camera system for departmental use in 2023, intending the AI-assisted surveillance technology to capture licence plates and vehicle details that may help generate leads into criminal investigations.
He was charged last week with misuse of official information, prompting the Lufkin Police Department to suspend its use of Flock entirely and call in the Texas Rangers for an independent review. The case has reignited debates over surveillance, privacy and accountability as similar allegations surface in other Texas cities. Flock requires officers to provide a reason for each search, such as kidnapping, robbery or auto theft. However, on Klein’s profile, the only reason he listed was “investigation. Chief Brazil has also called on the Texas Rangers to perform a separate, independent investigation into the matter.