Albany County Investigator Charged in Flock Camera Misuse

A senior investigator with the Albany County Sheriff's Office has been arrested and charged with misdemeanors after officials said she used the department's license plate reader system to conduct thousands of unauthorized searches, including roughly 3,000 searches tracking a former girlfriend's vehicle. Laurie Moore, 47, a 13-year veteran of the office, is accused of running more than 4,000 unauthorized searches involving five people known to her, according to the Albany County Sheriff's Office. That total includes tracking her former girlfriend's vehicle approximately 3,000 times, along with searching four additional license plates hundreds of times each. She is also accused of improperly accessing New York State Department of Motor Vehicles records for unofficial purposes. Sheriff Craig Apple announced the arrest at a news conference Wednesday, saying the investigation began after the department received a tip from an outside source. He said he immediately ordered an audit of the agency's use of the system, which initially found about 200 searches of a single vehicle before the full scope emerged.