- EFF found bizarre justifications in police ALPR search logs.
- Entries included “LOL,” “LMAO,” “Sexy,” “idk,” and gibberish.
- Some departments say questionable searches still involved legitimate investigations.
Police have repeatedly defended automated license plate readers as serious tools for solving serious crimes. Apparently, though, the paperwork documenting why officers are searching these enormous vehicle-tracking databases isn’t always treated quite so seriously. An investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation found officers entering reasons including “LOL,” “LMAO,” “Sexy,” “idk,” and we’re not talking about just one little department.
In one particularly striking example, EFF says a Goshen Police Department officer conducted a search spanning 6,474 ALPR networks and data from 82,413 cameras on May 7, 2025. The reason entered for that search? “idk.” The examples get increasingly absurd.
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EFF says employees with the Barberton Police Department in Ohio conducted numerous searches between March 2024 and May 2026 using “LOL” or “lol” as the reason. Lake County Sheriff’s Department employees in Indiana reportedly used “LMAO,” while Richmond Police officers in California used “Hehe.” The receipts don’t stop there.
In Norton, Massachusetts, an employee reportedly entered “Sexy.” Thornton Police in Colorado had searches documented as “driving around being weird.” A Columbus officer used “idiot.”Perhaps the most revealing examples don’t involve words at all. EFF found searches from agencies in Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Kentucky containing strings such as “asdfga,” “fghjkl,” and increasingly elaborate keyboard gibberish.
When asked for comment, several of these departments reportedly said that the searches in question were legitimate. Others said some of the reasons were the product of frustration with the software. The issue here is clear, and the solution doesn’t sound much better. Anyone auditing a log with “LOL,” or “Sexy,” as the reason for a search is going to have a tough time. Flock has now moved away from requiring free-text explanations.
Instead, users now click one of a handful of options in a drop-down box. The company says that makes audit records simpler and more accurate. EFF argues it could do the opposite for accountability, since an officer can now select a generic category without explaining precisely why they’re searching someone’s movements.
Flock’s dropdown isn’t the only way to handle this. Axon’s current Fusus ALPR interface requires users to select an offense category and provide a written reason for the search, while agencies can also make a case number mandatory. In other words, simplifying the interface doesn’t necessarily require eliminating an officer’s obligation to explain why they’re searching someone’s movements.
And that’s the part that’s difficult to laugh off. Whatever you think about ALPRs themselves, a surveillance system capable of searching tens of thousands of cameras isn’t exactly a toy. You’d think openly explaining why an officer needs to use such a powerful surveillance tool would be the first, and lowest possible, bar to clear.
