{"id":98491,"date":"2025-10-18T05:03:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T05:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/flock-safety-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-for-a-missing-person-it-was-an-abortion-investigation\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T05:05:00","slug":"flock-safety-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-for-a-missing-person-it-was-an-abortion-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/flock-safety-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-for-a-missing-person-it-was-an-abortion-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Flock Safety & Texas Sheriff Claimed License Plate Search Was For A Missing Person. It Was An Abortion Investigation."},"content":{"rendered":"

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from the never-trust-the-cops<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

New paperwork and court docket information obtained by EFF present that Texas deputies queried Flock Security\u2019s surveillance knowledge in an abortion investigation, contradicting the narrative promoted by the corporate and the Johnson County Sheriff\u00a0that she was<\/a>\u00a0\u201cbeing looked for as a lacking individual,\u201d and\u00a0that<\/a>\u00a0\u201cit was about her security.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The brand new info exhibits that deputies had initiated a \u201closs of life investigation\u201d of a \u201cnon-viable fetus,\u201d logged proof of a girl\u2019s self-managed abortion, and consulted prosecutors about presumably charging her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson County Sheriff Adam King repeatedly denied the automated license plate reader (ALPR) search was associated to imposing Texas\u2019s abortion ban, and\u00a0Flock Safety called<\/a>\u00a0media accounts \u201cfalse,\u201d \u201cdeceptive\u201d and \u201cclickbait.\u201d Nevertheless, in line with a sworn affidavit by the lead detective, the case was the truth is a loss of life investigation in response to a report of an abortion, and deputies collected documentation of the abortion from the \u201creporting individual,\u201d her alleged romantic companion. The loss of life investigation remained open for weeks, with detectives interviewing the girl and reviewing her textual content messages in regards to the abortion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paperwork present that the Johnson County District Lawyer\u2019s Workplace knowledgeable deputies that \u201cthe State couldn’t statutorily cost [her] for taking the capsule to trigger the abortion or miscarriage of the non-viable fetus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An excerpt from the JCSO detective\u2019s sworn affidavit.
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The information embrace beforehand unreported particulars in regards to the case that shocked public officers and reproductive justice advocates throughout the nation when it was first reported by\u00a0404 Media<\/a>\u00a0in Could. The case serves as a transparent warning signal that when knowledge from ALPRs is shared throughout state strains, it will possibly put folks in danger, together with abortion seekers. And, on this case, the use might have run afoul of legal guidelines in\u00a0Washington<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Illinois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A False Narrative Emerges<\/h2>\n

Final Could,\u00a0404 Media obtained data<\/a>\u00a0revealing the Johnson County Sheriff\u2019s Workplace carried out a\u00a0nationwide search<\/a>\u00a0of greater than 83,000 Flock ALPR cameras, giving the rationale within the search log: \u201chad an abortion, seek for feminine.\u201d Each the Sheriff\u2019s Workplace and Flock Security have tried to downplay the search as akin to a seek for a lacking individual,\u00a0claiming<\/a>\u00a0deputies had been solely on the lookout for the girl to \u201cexamine on her welfare\u201d and that officers discovered a considerable amount of blood on the scene \u2013 a declare now contradicted by the responding investigator\u2019s affidavit. Flock Security went as far as to\u00a0assert<\/a>\u00a0that journalists and advocates masking the story deliberately misrepresented the information,\u00a0describing<\/a>\u00a0it as \u201cmisreporting\u201d and \u201cclickbait-driven.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Flock wrote<\/a>\u00a0of EFF\u2019s earlier commentary on this case (daring in authentic assertion):\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Earlier this month, there was purposefully\u00a0misleading reporting<\/a>\u00a0{that a} Texas police officer with the Johnson County Sheriff\u2019s Workplace used LPR \u201cto focus on folks in search of reproductive healthcare.\u201d This group is actively perpetuating narratives which were confirmed false, even after the report has been corrected.<\/em><\/p>\n

In response to the Sheriff in Johnson County himself,\u00a0this declare is unequivocally false<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026 No expenses had been ever filed towards the girl and he or she was by no means beneath prison investigation by Johnson County. She was being looked for as a lacking individual, not as a suspect of against the law.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That sheriff has since been\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0indicted<\/a>\u00a0on felony counts in an unrelated sexual harassment and whistleblower retaliation case. He has additionally been charged with\u00a0aggravated perjury<\/a>\u00a0for allegedly mendacity to a grand jury. EFF filed public information requests with Johnson County to acquire a extra definitive account of occasions.<\/p>\n

The newly launched incident report and affidavit unequivocally describe the case as a \u201closs of life investigation\u201d of a \u201cnon-viable fetus.\u201d These paperwork additionally undermine the declare that the ALPR search was in response to a medical emergency, since, the truth is, the abortion had occurred greater than two weeks earlier than deputies had been known as to analyze.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lately, anti-abortion advocates and prosecutors have more and more tried to make use of \u201cfetal murder\u201d and \u201cwrongful loss of life\u201d statutes \u2013 initially supposed to guard pregnant folks from violence \u2013 to\u00a0criminalize abortion and pregnancy loss<\/a>. These legal guidelines, which exist in\u00a0dozens of states<\/a>, set up authorized personhood of fetuses and will be weaponized towards individuals who finish their very own pregnancies or expertise a miscarriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In truth, a\u00a0new report<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pregnancy Justice<\/a>\u00a0discovered that in simply the primary two years because the Supreme Courtroom\u2019s resolution in\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>, prosecutors initiated no less than 412 instances charging pregnant folks with crimes associated to being pregnant, being pregnant loss, or start\u2013most beneath baby neglect, endangerment, or abuse legal guidelines that had been by no means supposed to focus on pregnant folks. 9 instances included allegations round people\u2019 abortions, equivalent to possession of abortion remedy or makes an attempt to acquire an abortion\u2013cases similar to this one. The report additionally highlights how, in lots of cases, prosecutors use tangentially associated prison expenses to punish folks for abortion, even when abortion itself just isn’t unlawful.<\/p>\n

By framing their investigation of a self-administered abortion as a \u201closs of life investigation\u201d of a \u201cnon-viable fetus,\u201d Texas legislation enforcement was signaling their intent to deal with the girl\u2019s self-managed abortion as a possible murder, although Texas legislation doesn’t permit prison expenses to be introduced towards a person for self-managing their very own abortion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Investigator\u2019s Sworn Account<\/h2>\n

Over two days in April, the girl went by the method of taking remedy to induce an abortion. Two weeks later, her companion\u2013who would later be charged with home violence towards her\u2013reported her to the sheriff\u2019s workplace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paperwork verify that the girl was not current on the dwelling when the deputies \u201cresponded to the loss of life (Non-viable fetus).\u201d As a part of the investigation, officers collected proof that the person had assembled of the self-managed abortion, together with pictures, the FedEx envelope the remedy arrived in, and the directions for self-administering the remedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One other Johnson County official ran two searches by the ALPR database with the notice \u201chad an abortion, seek for feminine,\u201d in line with Flock Security search logs obtained by EFF. The primary search, which has not been beforehand reported, probed 1,295 Flock Security networks\u2013composed of 17,684 completely different cameras\u2013going again one week. The second search, which was initially uncovered by 404 Media, was expanded to a full month of knowledge throughout 6,809 networks, together with 83,345 cameras. Each searches listed the identical case quantity that seems on the loss of life investigation\/incident report obtained by EFF.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After accumulating the proof from the girl\u2019s companion, the investigators say they consulted the district lawyer\u2019s workplace, solely to be instructed they may not press expenses towards the girl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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An excerpt from the JCSO detective\u2019s sworn affidavit.
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However, when the topic confirmed up on the Sheriff\u2019s workplace every week later, officers had been beneath the impression that she got here to \u201cto inform her aspect of the story in regards to the non-viable fetus.\u201d They interviewed her, inspected textual content messages in regards to the abortion on her telephone, and watched her write a timeline of occasions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solely in any case that did they study that she really needed to report a violent assault by her companion\u2013the identical particular person who had known as the police to report her abortion. She alleged that lower than an hour after the abortion, he choked her, put a gun to her head, and made her beg for her life. The person was finally charged in reference to the assault, and the case is ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This documented account runs utterly counter to what legislation enforcement and Flock have stated publicly in regards to the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson County Sheriff Adam King\u00a0told 404 media<\/a>: \u201cHer household was fearful that she was going to bleed to loss of life, and we had been looking for her to get her to a hospital.\u201d He later instructed the\u00a0Dallas Morning News<\/a>: \u201cWe had been simply making an attempt to examine on her welfare and get her to the physician if wanted, or to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

The account by the detective on the scene makes no point out of involved relations or a medical investigator. On the contrary, the affidavit says that they questioned the person as to why he \u201cwaited so lengthy to report the incident,\u201d and he responded that he wanted to \u201ccourse of the occasion and name his household lawyer.\u201d The ALPR search was recorded 2.5 hours after the preliminary name got here in, as documented within the investigation report.<\/p>\n

The Desk Sergeant\u2019s Report\u2014One Month Later<\/h2>\n

EFF obtained a separate \u201ccase supplemental report\u201d written by the sergeant who says he ran the Could 9 ALPR searches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sergeant was not current on the scene, and his account was written belatedly on June 5, nearly a month after the incident and almost every week after\u00a0404 Media<\/a>\u00a0had already revealed the sheriff\u2019s various account of the Flock Security search, kicking off a nationwide controversy. The sheriff\u2019s workplace supplied this sergeant\u2019s report back to\u00a0Dallas Morning News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within the report, the sergeant claims that the officers on the bottom requested him to begin \u201cwanting up\u201d the girl attributable to there being \u201ca considerable amount of blood\u201d discovered on the residence\u2014an unsubstantiated declare that’s in battle with the lead investigator\u2019s affidavit. The sergeant repeatedly expresses that the state of affairs was \u201cnot making sense.\u201d He claims he was fearful that the companion had damage the girl and her youngsters, so \u201cto examine their welfare,\u201d he used TransUnion\u2019s TLO industrial investigative database system to search for her tackle. As soon as he recognized her car, he ran the plate by the Flock database, returning hits in Dallas.<\/p>\n

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Two abortion-related searches within the JCSO\u2019s Flock Security ALPR audit log
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The sergeant\u2019s report, filed after the case attracted media consideration, notably omits any point out of the abortion on the middle of the investigation, though it does notice that the caller claimed to have discovered a fetus. The report doesn’t clarify, and even tackle, why the sergeant used the phrase \u201chad an abortion, seek for feminine\u201d because the official motive for the ALPR searches within the audit log.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s additionally unclear why the sergeant submitted the supplemental report in any respect, weeks after the incident. By that point, the lead investigator had already filed a sworn affidavit that contradicted the sergeant\u2019s account. For instance, the investigator, who\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0on the scene, doesn’t describe discovering any blood or taking blood samples into proof, solely pictures of what the companion believed to be the fetus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One space the place they concur: each studies are clearly marked as a \u201closs of life investigation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Correcting the Report<\/h2>\n

Since 404 Media\u00a0first reported on this case<\/a>, King has perpetuated the false narrative, telling reporters that the girl was by no means beneath investigation, that officers had not thought-about expenses towards her, and that \u201cit was all about her security.\u201d<\/p>\n

However listed here are the information:\u00a0<\/p>\n