One of nation’s most prolific Flockers sent to prison for misuse

One of nation's most prolific Flockers sent to prison for misuse.

Key points

• The news organization's analysis discovered that Klein searched six license plates at least 7, 396 times from December 2024 to November 2025.
• Still, Wren remarked Klein continued using TLOxp and the Texas Criminal Information Center for personal reasons through June 2026.
• USA TODAY obtained a police report from 2021 showing that Klein's wife at the time called the Angelina County Sheriff's Office on him.
• Zachary Klein, an 11-year veteran of the Lufkin Police Department, was sentenced on Sept.
• Klein pleaded guilty in Angelina County District Court to 100 felony counts of misuse of official information.

One of nation's most prolific Flockers sent to prison for misuse. Kenny Jacoby, Austin Fast, Jack Lemnus USA TODAY. Former Texas officer sentenced for misusing flock police database.

Former Texas police officer Zachary Klein has been sentenced to five years in prison.

For context, a former police officer in Texas who is believed to be one of the most prolific Flock misusers in the country applied the technology to track his ex-girlfriend and her romantic partners and jeopardized an open manslaughter case as of his misconduct, the district attorney who prosecuted him informed USA TODAY.

Zachary Klein, an 11-year veteran of the Lufkin Police Department, was sentenced on Sept. 30 to five years in prison, five weeks after a USA TODAY investigation discovered he employed his agency's automated license plate reader cameras to monitor individual cars thousands of times. The privacy risks hiding behind Flock cameras.

Flock cameras can support solve crimes, but their vast location database raises a pressing question: Who can track your car, and why?

Klein is one of at least 27 police and sheriff's office employees nationwide who have been arrested, fired, put on leave or placed under investigation to date since of USA TODAY's reporting on widespread misuse of Flock's technology. He is the first of them to be criminally convicted.

Klein pleaded guilty in Angelina County District Court to 100 felony counts of misuse of official information. Texas Rangers, who conducted the criminal investigation into Klein, discovered that he employed Flock and other law enforcement databases to track the movements of his ex-girlfriend, her family members and other men she had dated for two years.

His case demonstrates the collateral consequences that officers who abuse Flock can inflict on the personal lives of innocent bystanders, including the victims of unrelated cases they had investigated.

It is part of a broader reckoning against Flock nationwide that has inspired concerned citizens to attend public meetings in droves, cities and counties to cancel their contracts with the firm, and prominent politicians to call for limitations or outright bans on its technology. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott cited Klein's case in late August as part of his decision to forbid local law enforcement agencies from spending state funds on Flock cameras.

Amy Wren, the district attorney for East Texas' 86, 000-person Angelina County, of which Lufkin is the county seat, informed USA TODAY that Klein ran more than 25, 000 improper Flock searches since July 2024 and threatened residents he illegally tracked.

Klein was the lead investigating officer in an intoxicated-manslaughter case Wren's office is at present prosecuting. As his actions undermine his credibility as a witness, that case is now at risk of dismissal, she remarked.

"He was stalking people, and they didn't even know it, " she informed USA TODAY. "He has affected at least one significant case in this office that may result in a victim getting no justice because of this."

Klein, who is incarcerated, could not be reached for comment. Dan Simmons, the attorney who represented him, emphasized that none of the charges against Klein pertain to stalking, threatening behavior or domestic violence. He remarked he believed Klein's sentence was "fair and measured."

"The overriding story that everyone needs to keep in mind is the appropriateness of the Flock camera system, " Simmons remarked. "They are intrusive of people's privacy at levels we haven't seen before. They are almost impossible to monitor and control."

In response to questions from USA TODAY in August regarding officer misuse cases, Flock public relations manager Paris Lewbel pointed to recent changes the business created to assist agencies identify bad actors, including its "Audit Assistance" feature. It he stated will become mandatory for all law-enforcement customers by the end of the year.

"Any officer abuse of our system is completely unacceptable, " Lewbel remarked in an emailed statement, "and the people that abuse our system should absolutely be held accountable."

Flock is an "incredible law enforcement tool, " Wren remarked. It has supported her office find missing children and vulnerable adults and solve aggravated robberies and murders that otherwise might have gone unsolved. It is extremely powerful, she remarked, but "lends itself to abuse."

"I think it is smart, " she remarked, "for people to reevaluate how it's being used, how we're going to monitor how it's being used, so that we can ensure if things like this are happening, we're catching it immediately, instead of after 25, 000 runs." USA TODAY investigation prompts arrest.

Lufkin police introduced an internal investigation into Klein after a USA TODAY reporter on Aug. 14 contacted the agency regarding his pattern of irregular Flock searches. More: Our Flock camera investigation sparks police firings, arrests.

In practice, the news organization's analysis discovered that Klein searched six license plates at least 7, 396 times from December 2024 to November 2025. One plate he searched an average of 20 times per day during a three-month span.

Lufkin police placed Klein on administrative leave and suspended Flock employ throughout the department during its internal investigation. Chief Travis Brazil additionally asked Texas Rangers to perform an outside investigation.

Texas Rangers arrested Klein on Aug. 20, six days after USA TODAY's inquiry.

Their investigation discovered that Klein had employed Flock to track the movements of at least 12 individuals associated with women he had dated, Wren informed USA TODAY. She remarked he searched at least five more residents using TLOxp and the Texas Criminal Information Center, two law enforcement databases that contain information regarding people's criminal history, active warrants, vehicle registrations, social security numbers, home addresses, phone numbers and more.

Meanwhile, a search warrant for his cell phone data made public that he had searched Google for things like "What is stalking in Texas, " "Is it stalking if the victims don't know you're stalking them, " "What's the statute of limitations for stalking, " "What's the penalty range for that, " and more, Wren stated.

"None of the people that he was watching had any idea that this was happening, " she remarked. "He knew what he was doing; they did not."

Klein demonstrated a pattern of using "coercive controls" on at least two women he dated, Wren remarked. That included allegedly threatening to kill himself multiple times in front of children, threatening to set fire to his ex's car and threatening one of the men she had dated. One of the license plates he searched most frequently was registered to the man he threatened, Wren remarked.

Klein denied making the threats in his interview with Texas Rangers, and none of these allegations resulted in charges against him. But Wren remarked her office obtained video of some of his behavior. She remarked he admitted using Flock to search residents for personal reasons and created a series of excuses to justify the misuse.

USA TODAY obtained a police report from 2021 showing that Klein's wife at the time called the Angelina County Sheriff's Office on him. A deputy logged the call as a "disturbance." The woman informed the deputy that he had revved his truck engine at her in his driveway while she hid behind a tree. Similar incidents had occurred throughout their marriage, she informed the deputy, but she stated had not documented them as she did not want it to affect his job.

As Klein was a police officer himself, according to Wren, Klein's subsequent dating partner – the woman he primarily surveilled – did not report similar threats either since she did not believe anything would happen.

During its prosecution of Klein's case, the Angelina County District Attorney's office obtained a lifetime protective order for the woman, with stalking as the underlying basis.

"He would have emotional swings and he would get very rage-like, " Wren remarked. "She was concerned for herself and her family members that, if he were to get out of jail, what he might do."

When officers throughout the Lufkin Police Department became aware that their search histories were publicly viewable through public records requests of agencies' Flock audit logs, Wren noted, klein halted conducting improper Flock searches in December 2025.

That's the same month that Flock, in response to public scrutiny, began obscuring its audit logs to stop the public from seeing most officers' names, license plates searched and their stated search reasons.

Wren charged Klein on Aug. 21 with 100 felony counts of misuse of official information, each a third-degree felony.

"To be honest with you, it was going to be more, " Wren remarked. "I wanted it to be a number that signified the significance of what he had done."

Klein pleaded guilty to all 100 counts on Sept. 30. Judge Todd Kassaw sentenced him to five years in prison, with credit for 42 days served.

Asked why the Lufkin Police Department did not catch Klein's Flock searches sooner, Chief Brazil remarked the agency's prior audits had not drilled down to the search activity of individual users. He observed that Flock apply remains suspended throughout the department.

"Because of the volume of legitimate searches across the department, Officer Klein's unauthorized searches were not readily distinguishable within the broader departmental activity, " Brazil informed USA TODAY in an emailed statement.

"This incident identified a weakness in the department's previous auditing practices – specifically, the need for greater review of individual-user activity rather than relying primarily on department-wide auditing. The department has taken that lesson seriously and is in the process of strengthening its oversight to provide greater accountability and support prevent similar misuse going forward."

For now, one of nations most prolific Flockers sent to prison for misuse remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.