Shively police officer accused of using Flock system to track, harass woman for months
SHIVELY, Ky. —
A Shively police officer was arrested this week, accused of using the Flock camera system to track and harass a woman for months.
Investigators say he had been involved with this woman in the past.
Asad Zahir, 40, was arrested Tuesday. He has been with the department since 2022 and was with the patrol division.
Chief Andre Bottoms Sr. says the new artificial intelligence auditing system for the Flock cameras automatically does a daily audit and Zahir’s searches were flagged. That prompted the police department to start an investigation.
He is charged with five counts of official misconduct and five counts of unlawful access to a computer.
His citation says that from January to May this year, Zahir abused his access to the police department’s Flock system.
It said he searched a woman’s registration more than 2,000 times, using the information to track her movements across Kentucky and Indiana during those five months.
It said Zahir had listed his searches under “drug/narcotic investigation,” which was not true.
Police said Zahir harassed her and made threatening comments, and she eventually got a temporary protective order against him.
He is no longer in jail after being released on his own recognizance. He is set to be arraigned Friday.
As for his status with the department, he is suspended without pay while the investigation continues.
They said they were tipped off to Zahir’s searches Monday.
“I think it’s important to lay the timeline out here clearly that from the time that this tool was enabled and the search was flagged until the time that he was ultimately charged with this crime was less than 24 hours,” Sgt. Jordan Brown with Shively PD said.
Shively police said that, moving forward, Flock searches will have to be associated with a search number.