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Jackson County, Ind. deputy misused Flock cameras to track girlfriend's location 2,055 times, charged with felony

On August 31, 2026, the Jackson County (Indiana) Prosecutor's Office charged former sheriff's deputy Skylar Thompson, 31, with official misconduct and fraud after a routine department audit found he had searched his then-girlfriend's license plate 2,055 times using the county's Flock camera system between December 31, 2025 and August 2, 2026, while employed as a deputy. Thompson falsely logged the searches as "city planning/traffic analysis," a duty he was never assigned, and resigned the day he was confronted before admitting the conduct to his then-girlfriend directly. A warrant was issued and he was taken into custody.

Part of: Police Using License-Plate Camera Networks to Stalk

Jurisdiction
Indiana
Location
Brownstown, Indiana

Abuses documented

Actors

  • Skylar Thompson (former Deputy, Jackson County Sheriff's Office)

On August 31, 2026, the Jackson County, Indiana Prosecutor's Office filed criminal charges against Skylar Thompson, 31, then a Jackson County Sheriff's Office deputy, after a routine audit of the department's Flock automated license-plate-reader system uncovered a pattern of unauthorized searches. According to the probable cause affidavit, Thompson searched his then-girlfriend's license plate 2,055 times between December 31, 2025 and August 2, 2026, while employed as a deputy, and logged the justification for each search as "city planning/traffic analysis" despite never being assigned any such duties. He was charged with official misconduct, a Level 6 felony, and fraud, a Class A misdemeanor; a warrant was issued and he was taken into custody.

Thompson resigned from the Sheriff's Office the day he was confronted about the misuse, then went to his then-girlfriend's home and admitted to her what he had done. After discovering the pattern, the Sheriff's Office referred the matter to the Indiana State Police for an independent investigation and to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office, which brought the charges. The prosecutor's office said in a statement that law enforcement officers are entrusted with sensitive investigative tools that "must be used only for legitimate law enforcement purposes," adding that "no person is above the law, especially those entrusted with enforcing it."

Why we recorded this

Access to a government surveillance network like Flock is authorized for legitimate law-enforcement purposes, not personal ones. A routine department audit found that then-Deputy Skylar Thompson ran 2,055 unauthorized Flock searches of his then-girlfriend's license plate over eight months and falsely logged each one as "city planning/traffic analysis" to conceal it, conduct he himself admitted to her once confronted. This archive records the event because it shows how a surveillance tool built for public safety can be turned toward tracking a private individual for months before an after-the-fact audit, not any real-time safeguard, caught it.

Sources

  1. Jackson County deputy allegedly used Flock cameras to search girlfriend's license plate 2,055 times — FOX59 (Nexstar) primary accessed September 4, 2026
  2. Former Jackson County deputy accused of making more than 2,000 unauthorized Flock searches — WDRB+WAVE primary accessed September 4, 2026
  3. Former Indiana deputy charged after 2,055 Flock searches of same license plate — WTHI primary accessed September 4, 2026

See also