A social media post claiming a sitting local judge had conducted more than 600 searches through the Flock Safety system has raised questions about how the law enforcement surveillance system was being used.
While the post did not identify the judge, Lamar County Flock audit records obtained and shared online by Nathan Polsky, candidate for Lamar County Commissioner Precinct 2, show the account responsible for 663 searches over the past three years belonged to Justice of the Peace Anson Amis.
“Government transparency is a core part of my platform,” said Polsky. “If taxpayers are funding something, they should be able to see how it works, how their money is being spent, and how government power is being used. I requested the Flock audits because I wanted to understand how the system was actually being used and make those records available to the public.”
Polsky said the audits revealed what appears to be a generic account labeled Dispatch1 was the most heavily used account and that there appeared to be accounts belonging to people outside of traditional law enforcement, including JP Anson Amis, which he has followed up on.
“I want to understand why those accounts have access, who is actually using them, and what authorization allows that access.”
Amis previously served in law enforcement before moving into the Justice of the Peace role. He was elected to the Precinct 5, Place 2 seat in March 2022 and began serving early on May 9, 2022, following the retirement of longtime Justice of the Peace Gene Hobbs.
According to the audit records, the first search under Amis’ account wasn’t conducted until Nov. 27, 2023 — more than 18 months after he became a justice of the peace.
From that date forward, the records show 663 searches conducted under his account while he was serving as a justice of the peace.
“I did have an account but no longer have an account,” said Amis. “I still have a close relationship with CID at the sheriff’s office and still have close ties to a lot of law enforcement. I am always willing to help and they ask for help quite often. If it’s something they share with me and want my opinion on but didn’t have a tag or description, I would assist them with Flock.”
The records show searches were conducted from both a computer and a mobile phone, and a further review found 234 of the 663 searches were conducted after 5 p.m.
Reasons entered for searches included burglary, theft, illegal dumping or littering and trespassing, among others.
However, numerous searches listed the reason as “unknown.”
“I get calls all hours of the night,” said Amis. “The late night searches are nothing irregular. Nothing more than helping law enforcement out. I did nothing wrong, I was just there to help, am always there to help anyone who asks for my help and law enforcement needs all the help they can get.”
Lamar County Sheriff Scott Cass explained that the ALPR system is a significant tool in combating crime.
“The ALPR system is a huge tool in our toolbox to combat crime,” said Sheriff Scott Cass. “We’ve put a hurt on the drug trafficking and smuggling trades, burglars and other criminal activity, and we’re constantly learning, evaluating our processes and making changes as we continue to see the benefits of what this system can do for our county.
“When we discovered there were officers who still had access to the system but no longer worked for our agency, we immediately deactivated their access. Justice of the Peace Amis has more than 22 years of patrol and investigative experience and his law enforcement experience continues to be a valuable asset to the sheriff’s office and he can still assist our investigators when needed without having access to the system himself.”
