One Indianapolis officer allegedly ran his ex-wife’s license plate through a police surveillance system more than 950 times in six months, and he wasn’t the only one caught abusing the technology.
Story Snapshot
- Marion County prosecutors charged five current and former Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers with misusing license plate reader technology.
- Charges include felony official misconduct, misdemeanor fraud, and one stalking count tied to alleged personal surveillance of women.
- An internal audit by the police department first flagged the irregular searches before referring the case to prosecutors.
- Four officers were suspended and recommended for termination, and one has already resigned.
Prosecutors File Charges After Internal Audit Flags Irregular Searches
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office charged Michael Rogers, Jonathan Schultz, Cassandra Crawley, Matthew Binford, and Abigail Cramer after the police department identified potential misuse of its license plate reader system and sent the case to prosecutors.
Court records released on a Wednesday in late September confirmed the charges. The system, made by a company called Flock Safety, scans passing vehicles and stores the data for law enforcement use.
The prosecutor’s office said the case grew out of a broader investigation into how officers were using the reader network. Officials framed the conduct as criminal, not just a policy violation, filing charges that included fraud, official misconduct, and one stalking count. That distinction matters.
Departments can quietly fire employees for breaking internal rules, but criminal charges signal prosecutors believe the conduct crossed into unlawful territory.
Charge Counts Show a Pattern, Not a Single Mistake
The numbers tell their own story. Matthew Binford faces one felony official misconduct count and one misdemeanor fraud count. Abigail Cramer faces six felony counts and six misdemeanor counts. Cassandra Crawley faces eight of each.
Michael Rogers faces three felony counts and three misdemeanor counts. Jonathan Schultz faces more than two dozen charges total, including stalking, official misconduct, and fraud.
BREAKING: Five Indianapolis police officers are being criminally charged for misusing Flock cameras.
One of the officers has already resigned, while the other four have been suspended and recommended for termination.https://t.co/Ax6Dy6SHnw
— FOX59 News (@FOX59) September 23, 2026
Prosecutors said the searches were not one-off errors. One officer queried his ex-wife’s vehicle more than 950 times over six months. Others allegedly searched people they had personal relationships with, far outside any legitimate police purpose.
Schultz is accused of entering his ex-wife’s information into the system and tracking women he met around the community, conduct that led directly to the stalking charge.
Department Response Included Suspensions and a Resignation
The police department did not wait for prosecutors to act before disciplining its own. Four officers were suspended and recommended for termination, and one officer resigned before charges were filed. That internal action started with an audit.
Police department leaders said the investigation began after routine reviews turned up “irregular usage” of license plate searches, meaning the department caught the problem before outside reporters or watchdogs forced the issue.
Police Chief Tanya Terry said the conduct “shook the foundation of trust” the community places in officers who carry badges and access to powerful surveillance tools.
That kind of language from a chief is not typical damage control. It reflects how seriously the department views a betrayal of access meant strictly to solve crimes, not settle personal scores.
A National Pattern of Access Without Enough Guardrails
Indianapolis is not an isolated case. Watchdog groups have warned for years that license plate reader systems are vulnerable precisely because officers get instant, largely unsupervised access to vehicle location data. The Institute for Justice has documented more than 100 incidents of this kind of abuse nationwide, including romantic stalking and other personal misuse.
A Washington Post investigation identified at least 69 police officials across the country accused, charged, or convicted of unauthorized searches using similar systems, including cases involving wives, girlfriends, and ex-partners.
The pattern points to a structural weakness, not just bad individual actors. Agencies that skip strict query logging, independent audits, and enforced need-to-know rules make this kind of abuse predictable rather than shocking. Indianapolis police leaders say they have since drafted a new use policy and daily auditing process meant to catch problems faster.
Whether that fix holds will depend on follow-through, not press releases. One warrant in this case remains sealed, limiting full public detail on that officer’s conduct.
Sources:
abcnews.com, www-cdn.abcnews.com, indystar.com, x.com, yahoo.com, wibc.com, eyesoffindiana.org, reason.org
