The High Crime of “LMAO”: How Cops Are Treating Mass Surveillance As a Joke

Here's a riddle: Why did a Goshen Police Department officer search 6,474 automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks, representing data from 82,413 cameras, on May 7, 2025? If your answer is "I don't know," it turns out you're 100% correct. The officer left the letters "idk" in the search field where cops are supposed to document the reason for the search. When law enforcement and tech salespeople pitch ALPRs to city councils, they stick to a familiar script. They trumpet the technology, which is often provided by private companies like Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, or Axon, as an essential tool for solving high-stakes crimes, such as car jacking, kidnapping, or murder. But when you strip away the carefully curated talking points, the data continues to reveal a different (and frankly, ridiculous) story. An EFF analysis of ALPR search logs from Flock Safety systems shows that officers across the country are spying on drivers for completely nonsensical "reasons." Police are routinely searching the Flock database without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties by logging reasons like "LOL" (short for “laugh out loud”), "LMAO" (short for "laughing my ass off"), "sexy," and "idk" (short for “I don’t know”) to access sensitive ALPR location data. And in some cases, officers are just mashing keyboard buttons rather than articulating the nature of their searches. Flock Safety claims it has improved its system by requiring officers to select from a dropdown list of crimes before running a search–but that only makes it easier for officers to hide improper searches behind the veneer of uniformity. The system does not require proof that the dropdown reason actually matches the true purpose of the search. With no warrant requirements, limited guardrails, and deficient audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone’s location information. This culture of abuse has allowed police to treat a mass surveillance network like their own personal search engine, permitting the tracking of the movements of everyday citizens for low-level complaints, personal whims, and sometimes, seemingly, for the lols. A Documented Culture of Abuse ALPR misuse isn’t a new phenomenon; it has dominated headlines for more than a year. We already know that officers regularly abuse these systems to stalk past and potential romantic partners. We’ve seen ALPRs used to surveil protests, which can chill First Amendment-protected dissent, and seen officers try to use an ALPR system to track down a woman seeking an abortion. Typically, we learn about these uses from documents called "network audits," which are long spreadsheets that document all the searches that run through an agency's system. It is not unusual for even a small agency to have a record of millions of searches from thousands of external agencies across the United States. We’ve also uncovered horrific systemic profiling, with more than 80 law enforcement agencies using terms like "roma" and "g*psy" to target ethnic Romani people—often without any mention of a suspected crime. And when police aren’t using ALPRs for stalking or profiling, they routinely use them for extreme low-level investigations: verifying whether a student lives in a specific school zone, running employment background checks, following up on loud music complaints, or targeting a motorcyclist simply for holding a cell phone. But somehow, it gets worse. The Absurdity of Documented Search Reasons EFF’s analysis of Flock Safety’s ALPR search data obtained through public records requests has uncovered a disturbing trend. In the absence of judicial oversight, officers are inputting ridiculously unserious terms to justify their searches. Here is just a snapshot of what police consider a "reason" to track someone’s vehicle: Surveillance as a Joke Audit logs sample Barberton Police Department (Ohio) employees ran numerous searches between March 2024 and May 2026, listing “LOL” or “lol” as the reason. Harris County Sheriff's Office (Texas) employees ran several searches between April and May 2026 listing “LOL” or “lol” as the case number. Lake County Sheriff's Department (Ind.) employees ran searches in July 2025 for “LMAO.” Richmond Police Department (Calif.) employees ran over multiple searches in November 2024 for “Hehe.” Riverside County Sheriff's Department (Calif.) employees ran searches in 2024 for “Haha.” "Don’t Know, Don’t Care" Approach Kankakee County, Sheriff's Office (Ill.) employees ran searches (2023–2025) for “idk” or “idk lol.” Goshen Police Department (Ind.) ran searches (May–June 2025) for “idk.” Fishers Police Department (Ind.) ran searches in May 2025 for “blah.” A Pasco Police Department (Wash.) employee searched for at least four different license plates, leaving "robbery i don't remember the case number leave me alone" in the reason field. The San Diego Sheriff's Department (Calif.) ran searches in May 2025 with "idk" in the reason field. More than 30 agencies ran more than 6,300 searches with "TBD" (short for "To Be Determined") as the "reason." These included the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Manteca Police Department (Calif.), and the Baton Rouge Police Department (La.). The Priceville Police Department (Ala.) alone ran 1,954 searches with reasons "TBD." Insults and Inappropriate Searches Belton Police Department (Mo.) ran searches (Aug–Sept 2024) for “d*ckhead.”  (asterisk/redaction our own) A Manteca Police Department (Ill.) employee ran searches in June 2024 for “sh*thead”  (asterisk/redaction our own) A Norton Police Department (Mass.) employee ran searches in December 2024 for “Sexy.” Corona Police Department (Calif.) employees ran searches (2023–2025) for “weird” or “WEIRD KID.” Thornton Police Department (Colo.) employees ran several searches in October 2025 for “driving around being weird.” A Columbus Police Department (Ohio) officer ran searches in 2023 for “idiot.” A Michigan City Police Department Officer (Ind.) ran searches in June 2025 listing “f*ck this new search engine.” (asterisk/redaction our own) Button Mashing Button mashing audit logs sample One of the more alarming discoveries we found in the network audit data is a large number of "reasons" that appear to be nothing more than an officer mashing buttons. These typically involve a nonsensical long string of characters from the same line or area of the keyboard. For example: An Eatonton Police Department (Ga.) employee ran searches with reasons such as HJKNUILH, uiokjk.kuj, GJLHBNMN, hjhbnmg, and iuohjk. An Atlanta Police Department (Ga.) employee ran searches with asdfga as the reason. Bay County Sheriff's Office (Fla.) employees ran searches with reasons such as  ;'lkjh, /lkjh and lkjhg. A Brown County Sheriff's Office (Wis.) employee ran searches with reasons such as gyghkkghghjkghjk, ggyjgyujdsrdghdfhjkghjghk, HJHJKLHLKHJK, hjjkjkhjkljk and JHLJKHHJKL. A Lake County Sheriff's Office (Ohio) employee ran searches with reasons such as asdfg and ghjkl, and a second officer ran a series of searches that started off with "investigation" but then devolved into button mashing, including: Investigatafy, Investigatafyd, Investigatafydl, Investigatafydlh, investigatafydlhj, investigatafydlhji, investigatafyfdlhji, investigatafyfdlhjigkfgty, investigatafyfdlhjigkfgtyy, investigatafyfdlhjij, investigatafyfdlhjik, investigatafyfdlhjikf, investigatafyfdlhjikfg, investigatafyfdlhjikfgty, investigatafyfdlhjikfgy and investigatafyfdlhjiy. A Moore Police Department (Okla.) ran searches with reasons such as jhjhjkhj, jhjkhjh, jhjkhjkh, jkhhkjhjk, Jkhjkhj, Jkhjkhjk, Jkhjkhjkh, jkhjkhkjh, jkjkhjkh, kjjkhjk, loiuiou, ukjhjkh and ulkuiou. A Westlake Police Department (Ohio) employee ran searches with reasons such as fghjkl, ghjkl, and lkjhg. A Kentucky State Police employee ran searches with reasons such as mhghjk, mhgnhjkj, nbvcxcvbn, nmbvcbnm, and sdfghj. It's hard to imagine a situation where these characters add up to a legitimate police code. However, it's easy to imagine an officer cutting corners with a text field they know no one is checking, especially if they are accessing the Flock Safety app from their phones while driving. How Police Departments Are Responding When confronted with these flagrantly unserious searches, police departments offered a mix of bureaucratic deflections and excuses. In response to EFF’s request for comment, Thornton Police Department (Colo.) claimed the system didn't require officers to select from a defined list at the time, but it does today. They also audited the “driving around being weird” searches, claiming they were all actually for "legitimate public safety purposes." Other police departments we reached out to for comment shared the following: Richmond Police Department (Calif.) stated that the officers involved with the "Hehe" and "idk" searches were "counseled." Corona Police Department (Calif.) noted that the employees searching for "WEIRD KID" are no longer employed by the city for unrelated reasons. Columbus Police Department (Ohio) pointed to their union contract, stating their Inspector General only has jurisdiction to investigate incidents within the last 90 days, giving the officer who searched for "idiot" in 2023 a free pass. Belton Police Department (Mo.) promised a "thorough investigation" of the "d*ckhead" searches through existing union and personnel policies. Manteno Police Department (Ill.) said it will "review the searches and the circumstances surrounding them thoroughly" and "take whatever action is determined to be appropriate based on the facts and circumstances.”