Eastern WA Flock cameras were searched after false abortion claim

A nationwide search for a woman, who was believed to have used abortion medication in Texas, has prompted scrutiny of Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader system.

A Tri-City Herald review of a Texas sheriff’s department report found the nationwide search, which included cameras in Prosser and Spokane County, had little to do with a suspected abortion.

Instead, the report details a case where a violent felon tried to pass off a blood clot as his ex-girlfriend’s aborted fetus after allegedly attacking her.

“The reason for the Flock search was to find out what city the victim and her children might be in and give us an idea of where to look for them, due to the large area of where the victim and her children could be at,” according to the reports from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Cleburne, Texas.

It’s unclear why they listed the search as related to an abortion rather than domestic violence, and it does not appear the sheriff’s office attempted to contact any of the agencies across the U.S., including in Washington state, where the cameras were accessed.

The case prompted alarm from privacy advocates and others across the country.

Combined with other concerns about privacy and public records rules, the city of Prosser shut down 20 traffic cameras in the town of about 6,500 west of the Tri-Cities.

The Tri-City Herald obtained 23 pages of reports under the Texas Public Information Act from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office to learn more about what led to the search.

It was first flagged in the Tri-Cities area as part of a University of Washington Center for Human Rights report about the Flock camera system.

“Also in May (2025), 404 Media also revealed that a police officer in Texas had conducted nationwide searches of Flock’s networks in an effort to track down a woman who had self-administered an abortion,” the report said.

The independent tech media company’s report was joined by several others across the country. The University of Washington listed one of the agencies searched as Prosser, but there were similar reports from Spokane, Illinois and New Mexico.

But Johnson County Sheriff Adam King told the Dallas Morning News that they believed the woman was in danger. They wanted to know if she needed to go to a hospital.

The Dallas Morning News reported at the time that Texas’ ban on abortions doesn’t allow criminal charges against patients, but does make it illegal for doctors to provide most types of abortions.

Abortion report by boyfriend

The Johnson County report shows Erik De La Rosa, 34, called police on May 9, 2025, to report his girlfriend had put her “bloody diapers” in the bathroom trash, and he discovered a “small fetus” on April 23.

He told deputies she was 18 weeks pregnant and had taken an abortion pill from California. He claimed he confronted his girlfriend, and they had a “small discussion about it and that led to a mild argument, so he told her to leave his house,” the report said.

De La Rosa told police he put the fetus in a stainless steel cup in his freezer after his girlfriend left with their baby.

He waited to call police until after his attorney advised him to do so on May 8.

De La Rosa also handed over a FedEx envelope addressed to his girlfriend along with instructions for taking Mifepristone, a drug used to end early pregnancies.

Deputies began a death investigation at that point.

One deputy “discussed the legal implications of the situation, noting that while the girlfriend self-administered the abortion pill, there were no criminal charges applicable under current Texas law,” said the report.

In a later interview, De La Rosa allegedly said that his ex-girlfriend said she didn’t want to be pregnant again and “wanted to do something with her life other than stay home and take care of children.”

Flock camera searches

It’s unclear when deputies started to doubt De La Rosa’s account. But it appears to have happened while deputies were talking with him.

“This initial report was not making sense and was not a ‘normal’ call for service,” one of the deputies wrote. “Deputies started to ask (dispatch) communications about looking up the victim due to a large amount of blood found in the residence. ... I began to believe the victim may have been hurt by (De La Rosa) due to the call and it not making sense.”

In addition to the death investigation, deputies began investigating De La Rosa for possible aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Deputies continued to search for his girlfriend, putting her black Land Rover’s license plate into the Flock system with the description “had an abortion, search for female,” according to the University of Washington report.

It remains unclear why they searched the entire nation. According to the report, the search only turned up a weeks-old hit of the Land Rover driving in Dallas.

About the same time, a Texas medical examiner determined what was initially thought to be a fetus was really a blood clot.

Domestic violence assault charges

The investigation took a turn about three days after the initial call to the sheriff’s office when De La Rosa’s girlfriend called the Johnson County medical examiner. It’s not clear why she made that call.

But after that conversation the medical examiner contacted the detective investigating the case because she gave a “completely different story” than De La Rosa’s account.

The woman came into the detective’s office on May 14 and was interviewed for three hours.

Details about what she told the detective were redacted from the report because it became a domestic violence investigation and remains an active criminal case in Texas, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.

De La Rosa is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and assault of a family or household member.

According to the indictment De La Rosa pointed a gun at his girlfriend’s head and is accused to strangling her. He’s due back in court on March 5.

De La Rosa has previous convictions for aggravated robbery from 2008 and 2013, according to public records.

Flock camera use

The majority of agencies in Benton and Franklin counties have adopted the cameras. The only exception has been the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

Just this week, Benton County commissioners said they believe the cameras are a benefit for law enforcement agencies when used appropriately.

It has proven instrumental in helping to track suspects in murders, assaults, hit-and-runs and other crimes.

But they’ve also faced growing scrutiny after several media reports of the cameras being accessed by U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Postal Service and out of state law enforcement for items that weren’t local crimes.

Walla Walla police have backed out of using them. Yakima residents have petitioned for their agencies to stop using the system.

This story was originally published February 4, 2026 at 12:37 PM.