A former Joplin police officer has been criminally charged after investigators say he used the city's Flock license plate reader system to track two girlfriends and one of their current boyfriends, running searches that stretched over more than a year before anyone caught on. Kenneth Andersen, who left the department after the misconduct was uncovered, now faces four misdemeanor counts of misuse of official information by a public servant.
According to a probable cause statement cited by The Turner Report, Andersen used the department's Flock cameras to check license plates connected to Brittnay Faulks and Ashtyn Gregg, both determined during the investigation to have been his girlfriends, as well as Travis Collins, identified as Gregg's current boyfriend. The searches, conducted on Andersen's department-issued laptop, ran from November 3, 2024 through December 28, 2025, per the statement. Investigators identified a December 28, 2025 computer check.
The Joplin Police Department first learned of the pattern in December 2025, when officials say Andersen had conducted a large number of Flock Safety computer checks on three vehicle license plates. The department believed at the time that the checks were conducted for a non-law-enforcement purpose, according to the same probable cause statement, and referred the matter to the Missouri State Highway Patrol on January 6, 2026 for an independent criminal review.
What Investigators Found
The Highway Patrol's investigation determined that Andersen conducted 22 law-enforcement-sensitive computer checks for a non-law-enforcement purpose, per the same account relayed in the probable cause statement. Those checks reportedly tapped into the M.U.L.E.S. and N.C.I.C. systems — restricted law-enforcement databases — to pull information on Faulks, Gregg, Collins, and vehicles associated with them. One search covered a Kansas driver's license number tied to Collins on October 24, 2025, and again on December 28, 2025; another involved a vehicle registration on December 13, 2025, associated with Faulks.
Although investigators identified 22 improper checks, Andersen faces four misdemeanor counts. He has posted a $20,000 surety bond and is currently free, with an arraignment scheduled for September 30 at 9 a.m. in Jasper County Circuit Court before Judge Nicole Marie Carlton.
The Legal Exposure
The charges stem from Missouri Revised Statutes Section 576.050, which makes it an offense to recklessly obtain or disclose MULES, NCIC, or other covered criminal-justice information for private or personal use or for a purpose unrelated to official duties, according to the Revised Statutes of Missouri. The statute's legislative history includes a 2009 act. Misuse of official information is classified as a Class A misdemeanor in the state, carrying a maximum penalty of up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $2,000 per count, per Carver & Associates.
Andersen had joined the Joplin Police Department as a sworn officer in December 2021 after completing his field training, recognized at the time during a formal departmental badge-pinning ceremony alongside three other graduating officers. The City of Joplin publicly confirmed in January that it had opened an internal affairs investigation into a former officer for misusing the Flock system in violation of department policy, and that Joplin police had placed him on administrative leave before he separated from the department.
Community Audit Exposed the Pattern
The scope of the misuse only came into full public view after local activist group DeFlock Joplin conducted its own independent audit of the department's search logs. That review, obtained through public records requests, found that a single officer accounted for nearly 25 percent of the Joplin Police Department's total Flock searches during 2025 — including one plate searched almost 400 times and another nearly 150 times, according to KSMU. The finding meant internal controls had failed to catch hundreds of unauthorized searches over roughly 14 months until outside citizens combed through the audit logs themselves.
In response, Joplin Police Chief Richard Pearson said this month that the department has since implemented monthly internal audits of officers' Flock usage, while maintaining that the license plate readers remain essential to public safety, according to reporting from The Chart. Police officials pointed to cases where Flock helped locate missing juveniles and felony suspects as justification for keeping the program running.
Part of a Wider Pattern
Andersen's case comes amid other reports of law-enforcement officers misusing automated license plate readers, including alleged stalking of romantic partners. Officers in multiple states have faced termination or criminal charges for similar searches.
The technology has drawn privacy concerns and scrutiny over misuse risks. Joplin is a recent Missouri example of those concerns.
