Mooresville officer accused of using Flock cameras to spy on boyfriend’s ex-wife

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Mooresville police say an officer illegally accessed the Flock Camera system at least 31 times to track her boyfriend’s ex-wife.

The Mooresville Police Chief says monthly Flock audits revealed 36-year-old Elizabeth Snowman misused the system.

“She accessed these cameras while she was off duty, which means she either sat in her cruiser in her parking lot and ran the plate again, or she took it in with her to her apartment and did it then,” Chief Ron Campurciani from Mooresville Police said. “This is another log on the fire for those guys to keep that flame going about why, and look at this, there’s another cop abusing the system.”

Snowman is facing the same misdemeanor charge of illegally accessing computers as Seth Elliott from Charlotte Mecklenburg Police. He’s accused of using the system to check a license plate for his alleged drug dealer friend who was under investigation in a neighboring county. Snowman and Elliott were charged within one week of each other in unrelated incidents.

“Police officers across the country are increasingly tapping flock for all sorts of misuse, including stalking and intimate partner violence on top of all sorts of other abuses of the technology,” Will Owens Communications Director for Surveillance Technology Oversight Project said.

Owens says increased reports of misuse prove police need more safeguards to protect residents privacy and civil rights.

“Officers are increasingly empowered to abuse this technology,” Owens said. “It provides way too much power with very little oversight that is leading to so many of these cases of misuse and abuse of the technology.”

Mooresville investigators are looking into at least three other officers for potentially misusing Flock cameras. Now they plan to make officers enter a case number connected to every Flock search to add another layer of security.

“We have the safeguards that we thought were enough. Clearly they’re not. So that’s why we’ve added the extra safeguards,” Chief Campurciani said.

The Chief says the Flock cameras are an important investigative tool, but one bad apple can spoil it for the bunch.

“It’s been a game changer for us what we’ve been able to accomplish here. But it all goes up in smoke when you have cops like this violating the system,” Chief Campurciani said.

Privacy advocates want police to store the Flock camera data for less time to help protect privacy.

Chief Campurciani says Officer Snowman is still employed at the department until Human Resources makes a decision on her employment.