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NEW BEDFORD — A District Court judge extended an abuse prevention order against a New Bedford police officer who ran her ex-girlfriend’s plates through the department’s Flock camera system, according to court testimony on Thursday.
Judge Heath Antonio found that the alleged victim continues to suffer from abuse and extended the order for six months. It prohibits the officer, Emily Pacheco, from possessing a firearm.
During testimony, Pacheco confirmed she ran her ex’s plates through Flock, but testified that it was for professional use. She said she could not recall how many times. She and her attorney, Kathryn Blythe, explained a tip from a confidential informant led Pacheco to investigate her ex’s new partner, who became a target of a “drug investigation” and was using the ex’s car. Pacheco was working as a detective at the time.
Blythe said the ex-girlfriend was not a target, but that her car was based on another person who was operating it.
Antonio asked if the confidential informant was registered with the department. Blythe said Pacheco would not be able to answer that, citing informant’s privilege.
“Registered doesn’t mean anything privileged… if she doesn’t want to answer it that’s fine,” Antonio said.
“I’m not going to pressure her to answer something that could cause a larger internal affairs issue,” Blythe told the judge.
The Light asked NBPD whether the informant was registered. In an email statement, spokesperson Holly Huntoon said the department will not comment on specific questions while internal investigations are ongoing.
Pacheco is under internal investigation by the New Bedford Police Department, which is also investigating an undisclosed number of officers regarding alleged misuse of the Flock system that the city quietly adopted in late 2024.
The ex-girlfriend told the judge that she interviewed with NBPD’s internal affairs unit and was told Pacheco ran her plate a “concerning amount of times.” She said at the end of the interview they gave her papers for a restraining order and “was advised” she should file a request for one. She said the investigators did not share how many times her plate was run.
The hearing lasted over one hour, and included testimony from an officer with whom Pacheco worked closely, William Mouyos. Blythe asked him questions about how the Flock system worked. He testified that officers did not get training.
Blythe submitted evidence into the case showing the ex-girlfriend was communicating with and voluntarily seeing Pacheco after April, which is when the ex wrote in her affidavit that she ended the two-year relationship. Blythe also brought up a monetary dispute over a dog they shared during the relationship, and said that until this month, the ex-girlfriend had location sharing turned on with Pacheco’s sister.
Blythe also argued Flock does not provide real-time location information, with an approximate two-minute delay. Antonio, however, said that is close to real-time.
Flock concerns
The court case and Flock allegations, first reported by The Light, mark the first reported case of purported Flock misuse by a police officer in Massachusetts.
Flock cameras, also known as automatic license plate readers, scan every car, make, model, color and license plate that drives by. That information becomes part of a data network that can be accessed by police officers and outside law enforcement agencies. Officers don’t need a warrant, or even probable cause or reasonable suspicion, to run a search.
The city’s Police Department on Tuesday announced it was temporarily suspending its use of its 20 Flock cameras. The suspension came a day after The Light inquired with the department about allegations that Pacheco used the system to track her ex-girlfriend, and hours after The Light inquired again after obtaining court records on the abuse prevention order.
The New Bedford City Council is also set to vote to send two motions to committee next week to further discuss the city’s use of Flock.
Pacheco has been one of the top users of the Flock system this year, according to data The Light analyzed. From April, the month the ex-girlfriend said she broke up with Pacheco, to June, Pacheco’s search frequency increased significantly. The most common reason cited for her Flock searches was “traffic infraction.” For some of those searches, Pacheco was seeking time frames spanning a day to over one week.
The department and its officers have access to cameras in other cities and towns in Massachusetts, and also has an agreement for network sharing with some Rhode Island municipalities.
Amid a nationwide outcry in communities that has transcended political lines, Flock on Thursday announced it was making several changes to its system, including a requirement that officers label every search with a case number. The changes come after a recent report in the Washington Post and earlier reports, which found that dozens of police officers had misused the system to “spy on their exes and romantic interests.”
The Institute for Justice this week published a database of all reported cases of misuse of automatic license plate readers by police. As of Thursday, it lists 140 incidents including errors (mistaken plates, for example), stalking (39 incidents across more than one dozen states), and non-law enforcement use.
Flock is also now recommending, not requiring, that departments retain the data for only seven days, down from up to 30 days. (Evidence required for criminal investigations can be preserved for longer.) All agencies will be required to adopt a Flock audit feature meant to catch “abnormal activity” by the end of the year. The company is also adopting a “proactive lockout” feature that will automatically block the user from the system if abnormal behavior is detected until a supervisor can review it.
Massachusetts lacks legal guardrails regulating the use of license plate readers. In a post on X Thursday, Flock’s CEO Garrett Langley made a plea to state legislators to “go further.”
“Mandate real auditing on every law enforcement data system,” Langley wrote. “Raise the penalties for misuse. And if your state wants help building it, we’ll do it for free.”
Per previous statements from NBPD, the department “recently” adopted Flock’s “Audit Assistance feature,” which rolled out in April. It’s unclear how the department learned of Pacheco’s alleged misuse, or the alleged misuse of other officers — whether it was the alleged victim who filed a complaint, Flock flagging the user, or some other way.
The New Bedford Police Union in a statement posted to Facebook Wednesday said that the union “takes any allegation involving the improper use of law-enforcement resources seriously. However, allegations are not findings of misconduct, and every officer is entitled to a fair, thorough, and impartial investigative process before conclusions are reached.”
Union President Lorenzo Gonzalez and Vice President Antonio Pereira attended the hearing. They did not answer questions about the apparent conflict of interest, with Pacheco continuing to investigate despite her ex-girlfriend’s car being involved in a “drug investigation.” They deferred to their written statement and said the internal investigation has to take its course.
Pacheco did not answer questions upon leaving the courtroom, with Blythe stating the officer would not be making any comments.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
To install trust in the community there has to be a stronger oversight of these type of programs to monitor and prevent failures like this from happening, incidents like this are not good for the community.
Flock cameras are owned by private companies. They are not owned by law enforcement agencies. Some oligarch in South America is getting paid and giving law enforcement a cut. The potential for misuse of flock cameras, as seen in this case, is an open invitation to invade peoples privacy and worse. The privatization of jails, surveillance, water and other previously public services turns us into slaves of the oligarchy. Resist!
I agree about the privatization and associated “no bid” contracts.
Local misuse is only part of the problem. The greater issue is the looming mass surveillance state that now challenges our nation.
Sources:
US government ramps up mass surveillance with help of AI tech, data brokers – and your apps and devices
https://theconversation.com/us-government-ramps-up-mass-surveillance-with-help-of-ai-tech-data-brokers-and-your-apps-and-devices-277440
Feds Under Fire for Mass Surveillance of Americans, Lacking Oversight
https://davisvanguard.org/2026/03/federal-data-surveillance-loophole/
DHS-built surveillance apparatus to surge in year ahead, documents show;The agency is expanding detection and tracking technology projects while simultaneously loosening the reins on oversight.
https://fedscoop.com/dhs-surveillance-technology-ai-funding-document-spyware/
Time to take action. If the accused did it with personal intent, take legal action. This should be in every establishment with cameras. If someone is proven innocent, then the accuser should be jailed!
Wow, didn’t see this one coming. Hopefully they get a new contract soon. Then they can be 100/100 of the top-paid city employees instead of 95/100. It’s well-deserved, I’m assured.