New Bedford police officer accused of using Flock cameras to track and follow ex-romantic partner

NEW BEDFORD — A city police officer has been accused by an ex-girlfriend of using Flock license plate readers to follow her, according to an affidavit filed this week for an abuse prevention order. 

The officer faces an internal affairs investigation, the police union president has confirmed, though he would not share for what reasons.

Emily Pacheco, who works as a patrol officer, was served the abuse prevention order on Monday, with a judge determining Pacheco poses a credible threat to the physical safety of the ex-girlfriend. The judge also ordered Pacheco to surrender all firearms, with the order stating her license to carry is suspended immediately. 

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The ex-girlfriend, whom The Light is not naming, alleged in her affidavit that she and Pacheco dated for at least two years. In April, the woman said, she ended the relationship and allegedly started receiving “endless calls” from Pacheco. 

“She then generated fake phone numbers to reach out to me, calling and texting,” the woman wrote. “Showing up to my home unannounced and refuse[d] to leave when asked … saw me pull into my home while on duty, got out of her cruiser and refused to let me leave.”

“As of recently there is an open IA investigation of her running my [license] plate through Flock to follow me,” the woman wrote.

An annotation from the court below the affidavit reads that the plaintiff “testified to stalking since Apr ’26 + fear + IA investigation.”

A day after The Light inquired about Pacheco’s alleged misuse of Flock with the Police Department, and hours after The Light inquired with further details from the court affidavit, Police Chief Jason Thody announced the department was temporarily suspending its use of the Flock system pending a review of all past use. 

The Light is awaiting a response from Thody and NBPD on the investigation into Pacheco. According to a press release from the department on the temporary suspension of Flock, “internal investigations have been opened, and one officer has been placed on administrative leave.” 

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.  

There have been reports of cases nationwide of police officers abusing the powerful camera technology to stalk, harass and keep tabs on the movements of ex-romantic partners. 

The allegation against Pacheco, if determined to be true, would be a clear violation of the New Bedford Police Department’s policy on Flock use, and a major privacy violation. The department’s memorandum of understanding, which all officers must sign before using the system, expressly forbids personal use or use to harass or intimidate any person. 

“Anyone who engages in an impermissible use of the [license plate reader] system or associated scan files, or hot lists may be subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability along with immediate termination of department access,” the memorandum reads. 

Pacheco has been one of the top users of the Flock system this year, according to data The Light previously obtained from the city. The most common reason inputted since April for her searches has been “traffic infraction.” 

For some of the traffic infraction searches, Pacheco was searching time frames spanning a day to over one week. 

In April (the month the ex-girlfriend said she ended the relationship), Pacheco ran 18 searches. In May, Pacheco ran 259 searches and in June, 220, per NBPD data. The Light does not have data for July. In the released data, the city withheld information on the license plate information and car characteristics that officers may have entered for their searches. 

The city has 20 Flock cameras throughout New Bedford. There are also cameras across the state and in surrounding towns, including Dartmouth and Fairhaven. Data shows Pacheco was searching several networks, sometimes over 100, which would mean she was accessing data from cameras outside of New Bedford. 

The Light contacted Pacheco by email for comment Tuesday. Department policy prohibits officers from speaking to the press without permission from the police chief. It is a policy violation that can be disciplined. 

“The New Bedford Police Union is aware of an ongoing internal investigation involving Officer Pacheco. Due to the investigation being open and ongoing there will be no further comment at this time,” wrote Ofc. Lorenzo Gonzalez, the union president, in an email Tuesday. 

Gideon Epstein, a technology expert and counsel with the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement that Flock gives police “an unprecedented ability to track all drivers, regardless of whether drivers are suspected of any wrongdoing.”

“Allegations of police misuse of surveillance technology and databases for personal reasons highlight the need for robust, effective democratic oversight, transparency, and accountability mechanisms in law, policy, and police operations procedures,” Epstein wrote. 

In an interview early last month with The Light when asked about how the department would catch possible abuse, Thody said there was no guarantee that staff would be able to identify it “up front.” He shared a hypothetical of an officer intentionally masking a search for an ex-girlfriend or the new romantic partner of an ex. 

“When the individual makes a complaint against the officer for stalking him or being aggressive, we would be able to back into that and find it, and that may turn a misconduct investigation into a termination case,” Thody said. 

“Like every one of our databases, an officer can put false information in there to access the data,” he said. “That’s why the consequences for that are usually criminal… and termination. There’s not a progressive written warning.”

Flock questions

The Light previously reported that police staff responsible for auditing the system missed a possible misuse by an officer, who entered “immigration” as a reason for his search in January 2026. 

The department’s policy prohibits the sharing of any data for federal immigration enforcement. The department only found out about this search tag in July after The Light inquired. 

“It is something that they should’ve seen and asked the question well before now,” Thody had told The Light. “I’m going to address it… they did not pick up on that in that audit and they should’ve.”

Thody said ultimately they determined the officer did not use the search for immigration, and instead hit the wrong option in a dropdown menu. 

NBPD spokesperson Holly Huntoon last month said the department “recently” enabled a Flock “Audit Assistance feature” to “identify potential anomalies or unusual search activity, such as repeated searches of the same license plate over an extended period, allowing supervisors to review activity for compliance with department policy.”

Massachusetts lacks legal guardrails that other New England states have adopted that regulate use of the technology by police departments, according to the ACLU of Massachusetts. 

Dozens of New Bedford residents vociferously asked (or demanded) last month that the city remove the camera system, which it quietly adopted in late 2024. One of their stated concerns was that police might abuse Flock to stalk their ex-romantic partners.

In response, city councilors filed motions: one calls for a hearing with city officials, and the other calls for the immediate cessation of the use of the Flock cameras until an ordinance is adopted regulating their use. 

Both motions are scheduled to be heard on Aug. 20 at City Hall in the council chambers. Some residents are planning to protest before and during the session. An online petition that calls for the suspension of Flock by New Bedford and greater transparency has about 300 signatures. 

As for the allegations against Pacheco, there will be another court hearing this week for a possible extension of the abuse prevention order against her. 

Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.