Search suspended for missing 5-year-old girl swept away in ocean in Laguna Beach: Officials
Crews have suspended the search for a missing 5-year-old girl who was swept away in the ocean in Laguna Beach, California. (KABC)
(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) — Crews have suspended the search for a missing 5-year-old girl who was swept away in the ocean in Laguna Beach, California, the Coast Guard said on Thursday, as the mayor called the situation “heartbreaking.”
The girl went missing at about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday near Treasure Island Beach, Laguna Beach officials said. She was with her mother and a sibling near the shoreline when the three of them were swept into the ocean by powerful water conditions, the city officials said.
Bystanders ran into the ocean and were able to rescue the mother and one of her children, but the 5-year-old remained missing, officials said.
The search and recovery effort continued on Wednesday, with rescuers working “under challenging and hazardous ocean conditions, including large surf, powerful currents, and limited underwater visibility,” city officials said.
The search ended Wednesday evening after rescuers worked more than 30 hours and covered more than 90 square miles, the Coast Guard announced.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the child’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Capt. Stacey Crecy, commander of Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach, said in a statement. “Suspending a search is an extremely difficult decision.”
“This is one of the most heartbreaking incidents I have witnessed during my time serving this community,” Laguna Beach Mayor Mark Orgill said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the young victim’s family, friends, and all those affected by this tragic loss.”
“I am incredibly proud of the dedication and professionalism demonstrated by our Marine Safety, Fire, and Police personnel, as well as every agency that assisted in this effort,” the mayor added. “These men and women put themselves in harm’s way, entering the same dangerous ocean conditions in an attempt to bring this young girl home to her family.”
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(LAS VEGAS) — A teenage girl has been arrested for allegedly injuring three horses at an equestrian competition, officials said.
Officers responded to a barn in Las Vegas early Saturday and found three horses “intentionally injured with a sharp object,” Las Vegas police said.
A teenage girl was identified as a possible suspect, police said. She allegedly had access to the barn and authorities believe she may have used a knife to wound the horses, police said.
The horses’ injuries were not life-threatening, but they were expected to keep the animals from competing at this weekend’s event, police said in a statement.
The teen, who was at a nearby hotel, was taken into custody and booked for 12 counts of willful/malicious kill/maim/torture animal – horse and three counts of felony malicious destruction of private property over $5,000, police said.
The suspect was a competitor in the National Barrel Horse Association’s Professional’s Choice Vegas Super Show this weekend, according to the NBHA.
“The situation was addressed immediately in coordination with the National Barrel Horse Association, the South Point Hotel & Casino Security, Metro Police, and all appropriate parties,” the NBHA said in a statement.
“All appropriate steps have been taken to ensure the well-being of all horses,” the organization added.
A Flock brand automatic license plate reader camera is attached to a utility pole on Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A nationwide wave of protesters and vandals targeting surveillance cameras made by Flock Safety did not deter a man in a Darth Vader costume from praising the devices at a recent city council meeting in San Diego, California. His “Star Wars”-themed acclaim, as it turned out, was anything but.
“The Emperor is a fan of Flock,” the man told elected officials in a mocking tone last week. “We must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum.”
So far this year, more than 50 cities and counties have canceled or deactivated automated license plate-recognition (ALPR) cameras of the type manufactured by Flock Safety and other firms, also known as Flock cameras, Politico found.
On Monday, Florida’s state transportation office revoked the ability of local law enforcement to put license plate readers on state highways.
Flock cameras have been vandalized in at least 36 states, including incidents in which individuals sawed down the devices and shot at them with guns, NPR reported last month.
The neighborhood cameras have prompted pushback in localities big and small, dotting red and blue states. Privacy concerns have been stoked in part by instances of police officers tracking ex-partners or other relations, some analysts and advocates told ABC News.
Wariness about the role of artificial intelligence in the technology has deepened public unease, tapping into discontent about the possibility of AI acting beyond human oversight, they added.
“This is the biggest, most grassroots privacy backlash that I’ve ever seen in more than 20 years working on these issues,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told ABC News.
“It just shows people don’t like mass surveillance,” Stanley added.
Surveillance technology firms and a law enforcement expert, however, touted the cameras as a valuable tool for police departments, leaving officers better equipped to protect public safety.
“You can see in some cases unsolved crimes may have been solved if there were a Flock camera in the area at the time,” Kenneth Gray, a lecturer in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of New Haven, told ABC News. “They can be useful.”
More than 135,000 automated license plate-recognition cameras have been identified nationwide, and four of every five of those are made by Flock Safety, according to crowdsourced data from DeFlock.org. The company says its cameras operate in 49 states.
Flock cameras, which sit atop metal roadside poles resembling streetlights, capture a vehicle’s license plate number and characteristics as it passes, Flock Safety says on its website. The devices do not identify individuals in a given car, nor do they record continuously, the company adds.
Earlier this month, the firm bolstered safeguards for its cameras, including a default data-retention period of seven days instead of 30, as well as an “Evidence Mode” for preserving data related to an active investigation.
“Flock is designed to help authorized users find relevant evidence for investigations without compromising safety and compliance,” the Flock Safety website says. “Clear safeguards define how information is stored, accessed, shared, and reviewed.”
Flock Safety did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The technology has triggered some police abuse involving its recordings. A police officer in Kentucky was arrested last week after authorities alleged he used Flock cameras to track his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times. In Savannah, Georgia, six police department employees were fired in August over alleged abuse of Flock cameras, according to local ABC affiliate WJCL.
The nonprofit Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm, says it has identified more than 100 incidents of ALPR abuse, among them stalking and wrongful stops.
“People have a sense, ‘I wouldn’t want someone following me around in a car; and I wouldn’t want them doing it with a camera,'” Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, an advocacy group organizing against Flock cameras, told ABC News.
“Then when these stories come out about law enforcement officers using it to stalk their exes, it reminds people once you build a surveillance apparatus like this, it can and will be abused,” Greer added.
The use of AI in Flock cameras has exacerbated concern among some critics, analysts said, since they fear data could be compiled and examined by the technology with limited oversight.
“These companies are not just recording that you were on this street at this time on this day; they’re also allowing law enforcement to run algorithms to decide whether your movement patterns are ‘suspicious,'” said Stanley, of the ACLU.
Surveillance companies and a law enforcement expert promoted the crime-fighting benefits of Flock cameras. They pointed to the unique information provided by a network of devices that can identify and track vehicle movements.
Flock Safety says it helped authorities locate more than 10,000 missing people last year, amounting to more than 27 per day. Roughly 1 million criminal investigations were supported by Flock in 2025, the company says.
Flock Safety cameras helped law enforcement identify the car belonging to a suspect in the murder of a Brown University professor last year, aiding efforts to track down the individual, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said in December. The suspect died by suicide before he was located.
The surveillance capability that unnerves some critics can be vital to a police investigation, according to Gray, of the University of New Haven.
“Because there’s a series of Flock cameras, you can put together a pattern of where a particular car goes at a certain time of day along a particular route,” he said. “That can be useful in putting together details that can be analyzed to try to fill in gaps for an investigation.”
Still, Gray acknowledged, the camera system collects information on many innocent people, vacuuming up data of no utility for law enforcement.
“The Flock system is building a database without any allegation of criminal activity. It’s useful to law enforcement after the fact, but it’s also gathering up information on many people that have committed no crime,” Gray said.
Critics of Flock cameras lauded local efforts to cancel or alter contracts with surveillance companies. They said they hoped additional restrictions would be implemented on a wider scale.
Greer, of Fight for the Future, advocated for a nationwide ban of the technology, saying “there are certain types of weapons we’ve decided as a society are too dangerous to sit in the basement of your local police department.”
Torin Monahan, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in surveillance, said law enforcement should be required to possess a judicial warrant in order to access Flock camera data.
“If they have to prove probable cause and protect people’s 4th Amendment rights, as they do with other evidence, I think that would be reasonable,” Monahan told ABC News.
Gray, the law enforcement expert, agreed.
“A warrant for the information from the database would protect the public from misuse,” he said.
The backlash has prompted action from state and national elected officials belonging to both major parties.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbot last week paused state funding of Flock cameras. Meanwhile, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in recent days he would welcome a bipartisan bill to ban Flock cameras in the state.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, on Friday announced an investigation into Flock Safety, penning an open letter to the company that included a request for internal documents.
“I want law enforcement to have tools to catch offenders and keep the public safe. But Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church,” Hawley wrote.
Former NRA Leader Wayne LaPierre arrives for his civil trial at New York State Supreme Court on January 08, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — An appellate court in New York has upheld a $4.3 million judgment imposed on former National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre after he was found liable of misappropriating money.
The Appellate Division’s First Department also upheld the prohibition on LaPierre from holding a position as an officer or director of the NRA for 10 years.
“The 10-year ban does not burden LaPierre’s rights to freedom of speech and association, as he remains a member of the NRA and is not precluded from making any public statements or involving himself in fundraising or other outreach,” the opinion said. “Neither does the monetary restitution amount constitute a fine. Instead, it serves the remedial purpose of reimbursing the NRA for the losses LaPierre caused, making it compensatory in nature.”
The decision is a victory for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued the NRA, LaPierre and other current and former officers for self-dealing, alleging they violated New York charities laws by mismanaging the NRA’s funds.
The lawsuit was filed in 2020, claiming they misappropriated millions of dollars to fund personal benefits — including private jets, family vacations and luxury goods. The accusations came at the end of a three-year investigation into the NRA, which is registered in New York as a nonprofit charitable corporation.
“Wayne LaPierre and other senior NRA leaders broke the law by funneling millions of dollars in lavish perks to themselves and their families,” James said in a statement celebrating the appeals court decision.
“This decision upholds the jury’s verdict and is another victory in our efforts to ensure that LaPierre is held accountable for his illegal self-dealing,” James said.
LaPierre argued James brought the case against him in retaliation for his speech advocating for gun rights, but the court rejected that, writing the “Attorney General ‘showed as a matter of law that it had probable cause to investigate and sue,’ since ‘public reports of malfeasance at the NRA predated the investigation’ and the investigation uncovered ample evidence of malfeasance.”
LaPierre announced his resignation from the organization in January 2024, days before the start of the trial, citing health reasons, according to the NRA.
After five days of deliberations, a jury in New York in February 2024 held the NRA liable for financial mismanagement and found that LaPierre corruptly ran the nation’s most prominent gun rights group.
