LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock police officer fired in July after a judge committed him to a psychiatric facility had used the department’s Flock Safety license plate reader system to search his girlfriend’s plate 28 times in 10 days, according to the department’s request to strip him of his state law enforcement certification.
The Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training will take up the Little Rock Police Department’s recommendation to decertify former Officer Kyle Dishman, 27, when it meets Tuesday and Wednesday at Arkansas State Police headquarters in Little Rock. He is item 33 on the commission’s agenda, one of 25 decertification recommendations from agencies across the state.
The case lands after a summer of pushback against the cameras in Arkansas. Arkansas Breaking News reported in July that nearly 1,000 license plate readers had been reported on Arkansas roads, and five cities, starting with Pea Ridge and ending with Greers Ferry, pulled their Flock cameras in a three-week span.
What the department told the state
A commission summary of the department’s submission, obtained and published by the Snarky Media Report, says a lieutenant received information June 4 that Dishman “had been using his FLOCK system improperly.” It says investigators found he searched his girlfriend’s license plate 28 times between May 16 and May 26.
Dishman “had already been off work related to the Wellness Unit, and was officially relieved of duty pending the outcome of the administrative investigation,” the summary says.
The department fired him July 23 and submitted its decertification request the next day. The request cites commission rules that allow decertification when an officer leaves employment over conduct punishable by law, is dismissed for violating agency rules or violates the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics.
The plate was a Texas tag belonging to the mother of Dishman’s child, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Friday, citing the department’s records. For each search he entered a reason from the system’s menu, the newspaper reported, including animal cruelty or neglect, assault or battery, disorderly conduct, drugs and suspicious vehicle.
The department’s license plate reader policy, which the newspaper obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, says “the entered reason must be apparent in order to ensure proper usage of the system.”
The lieutenant who ran the audit could only look back 30 days because of Flock’s data retention limit, the Democrat-Gazette reported, so the records do not show whether the searches began before May 16.
Dishman’s termination letter cites only the commitment order and does not mention the Flock searches, the newspaper reported. The department told the Democrat-Gazette its internal investigation is ongoing and that it is not aware of any criminal investigation. Dishman declined to comment to the newspaper.
The department kept his name out of it
The misuse first surfaced publicly Oct. 6, when KATV reported that the department’s July 3 quarterly license plate reader audit found an unnamed officer had searched the same plate 28 times “using various search reasons.” The audit said the misuse “had been reported and was being addressed.”
When the station asked for records showing whether the officer had been counseled, retrained or disciplined, the department refused, citing the FOIA exemption for employee evaluation and job performance records, and said it could not release more while the investigation was ongoing. By then Dishman had been fired for more than two months, and the department’s decertification request had been pending at the state commission since July 24.
Three hospitals in a week
Court records in Pulaski County Circuit Court fill in what happened to Dishman between the May searches and his firing.
On June 5, a fellow Little Rock officer, Torrie Cobb, petitioned the court to have him involuntarily committed. Cobb wrote that Dishman had been to three facilities in the previous week. He left Bridgeway, she wrote, because colleagues had arranged for him to go to a hospital in Utah, where he left against medical advice after three days. He returned to Arkansas on June 3 and said he was suicidal, she wrote, and she took him to UAMS, where he left before he could be admitted.
“He called me shortly after and sounded really depressed and slow and told me he was losing everybody and has nothing,” Cobb wrote. “He is usually pretty upbeat and almost manic, so based on his current mood we are really concerned.”
Circuit Judge Hugh Finkelstein ordered Dishman detained the same day. On June 17, after a hearing on the grounds of the Arkansas State Hospital, Finkelstein found “clear and convincing evidence the Respondent has a mental illness and poses a clear and present danger to himself or others” and committed him for up to 45 days to CHI St. Vincent Center for Behavioral Health.
Eight days later the judge issued a bench warrant after treatment staff reported Dishman had not complied with his treatment plan. He recalled it the next day, writing that Dishman “has reestablished compliance with the treatment plan, and admission to an appropriate facility is no longer appropriate.”
On July 24, the day after his firing, Dishman filed a handwritten motion in the commitment case asking the court to restore his right to carry a gun.
“My name is Kyle Dishman I’m a previous police officer from Little Rock,” he wrote. “I was terminated due to mandated court order filed on June 17th 2026. … I been attending all my designated appointments for treatment to get better. I’m writing this to get my gun rights restored so I am allowed to carry a firearm to get my job back. I am not a threat to myself or others.”
The docket shows no ruling on the motion. The case is closed.
Four write-ups in three years
Dishman joined the department Aug. 14, 2023, the Democrat-Gazette reported. His personnel file shows restorative supervision a month later, an oral reprimand in May 2025 for losing or damaging city property, a written reprimand in July 2025 for insubordination, and a written reprimand March 2 of this year for violating the department’s policy on carrying a round in the chamber of his service weapon and for conduct unbecoming or negligence, according to the newspaper.
Officers using Flock’s cameras to track partners and exes has become a recurring story nationally. The Washington Post reported in August on a string of such cases, and a Kentucky officer was arrested the same month after authorities said he ran an ex-girlfriend’s plate more than 2,000 times.
If the commission votes to decertify Dishman, he will be barred from working as a law enforcement officer in Arkansas unless he later wins reinstatement. The commission’s two-day session begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday at One State Police Plaza Drive.
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