The Electronic Frontier Foundation reviewed public records and found police officers entering flippant or meaningless reasons—such as "LOL," "LMAO," "idk," and keyboard gibberish—when querying ALPR databases. A May 2025 search in Goshen, Indiana covered 6,474 networks and 82,413 cameras and was logged as "idk." Over 6,300 searches were recorded as "TBD," with Priceville, Alabama accounting for 1,954. The EFF calls for stronger oversight, including warrant requirements and strict data-deletion rules, and warns vendor UI changes may also obscure questionable searches.
‘LOL’ as Justification? EFF Finds Police Enter Flippant Reasons When Querying Mass ALPR Networks
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says a review of public records found police officers entering casual, meaningless or outright gibberish reasons when querying automated license plate reader (ALPR) databases—raising fresh concerns about oversight of a powerful surveillance tool.
What the records show: The EFF identified search-log entries such as "LOL," "LMAO," "idk," and long strings of keyboard gibberish (for example, "asdfga" and "fghjkl"). One striking example: in May 2025, an officer in Goshen, Indiana searched across 6,474 ALPR networks representing data from 82,413 cameras and logged the justification as "idk."
Image Credit: Flock Safety.
Examples and scope
Agencies around the country contributed similar entries. The EFF report cites records showing employees at the Barberton Police Department (Ohio) using "LOL" or "lol," staff at the Lake County Sheriff’s Department (Indiana) entering "LMAO," and searches tied to Richmond Police (California) recorded as "Hehe." More than 30 agencies logged over 6,300 searches marked "TBD" or "To Be Determined," with Priceville, Alabama alone accounting for 1,954 of those entries.
Audit logs included numerous apparent instances of careless input—random-character strings and long sequences of keyboard button-mashing—documented across multiple states. While such entries don't automatically prove the underlying searches were improper, they weaken the usefulness of audit trails designed to hold users accountable.
Image Credit: Flock.
Agency responses
Several departments told the EFF they were reviewing the entries or had already taken action. Richmond Police said officers linked to some "Hehe" and "idk" searches were counseled. Belton Police (Missouri) pledged an investigation after searches containing an insult. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said it reviewed "idk" entries and found they were tied to active investigations. Fishers Police (Indiana) reported that a detective used "blah" while troubleshooting technology and has been instructed to use a "test" label instead.
Vendor changes and oversight concerns
Flock Safety, a vendor whose systems are widely used for ALPR data collection, has moved away from requiring free-form, typed reasons and now offers a dropdown menu of predefined offense categories. The EFF warns that while dropdowns may reduce gibberish entries, they could also make questionable or vague searches harder to spot because users can select a generic category without documenting the specific purpose of the query.
EFF recommends stronger restrictions on ALPR databases, including warrant requirements for broad searches and strict data-deletion deadlines to limit long-term tracking.
Image Credit: Flock Safety.
Whether through training, better user interfaces, or stronger legal safeguards, the episode highlights a simple point: if audit logs contain "LOL" and "idk" as reasons for accessing systems that can reconstruct where people and vehicles have been, the public's ability to trust those systems is diminished.
Help us improve.
