New court records detail alleged improper Flock searches by former Joplin officer

A former Joplin police officer accused of misusing confidential law enforcement databases allegedly conducted searches involving people connected to his personal life, according to newly filed court records.

Kenneth Dewayne Andersen faces four counts of misuse of official information by a public official in Jasper County.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol probable cause statement says the investigation began after the Joplin Police Department discovered Andersen had conducted a large number of Flock Safety searches involving several vehicle license plates.

Police believed the searches may have been conducted for reasons unrelated to law enforcement and asked the Highway Patrol to investigate Jan. 6.

Highway Patrol investigators say they ultimately identified 22 law-enforcement-sensitive computer checks that were not conducted for a legitimate law enforcement purpose.

The searches involved people with personal connections to Andersen and vehicles associated with them.

Investigators say Andersen used his department-issued laptop to access MULES and NCIC law enforcement databases between November 2024 and December 2025.

The probable cause statement says only four of the alleged violations were still within the statute of limitations.

The allegations come as Joplin Police Chief Richard Pearson has defended the department’s continued use of Flock cameras while stressing that officers who misuse such systems should be dealt with individually.

“If an officer, an individual officer misuses the system, then that police department needs to deal with that officer individually,” Pearson told KZRG. “Then they need to tighten up their policies, their practices, their protocols, and their training to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Pearson said misconduct by an individual officer should not necessarily mean abandoning the technology altogether.

“To say that an officer somewhere misused the system, so let’s get rid of the whole system, that’s just too far fetched,” Pearson said. “And it’s a knee jerk reaction that we can’t get into.”

Pearson also stressed that information generated by Flock does not by itself give officers grounds to stop a vehicle.

“Just because Flock says there’s an issue with the vehicle doesn’t mean we automatically jump on that car,” Pearson said. “We still have to make sure that everything, all our legal hurdles have been jumped and all their legal burdens have been satisfied.”

Andersen is charged with four counts of misuse of official information by a public official.

He was let go by the department earlier this year.

The probable cause statement was filed Aug. 25 in Jasper County.

The Highway Patrol investigator wrote that he did not believe Andersen posed a danger to the community and believed he would appear for court proceedings.

The allegations have not been proven in court.