SurveillanceHigh
Former Costa Mesa, California, Police Officer Reportedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Track Woman He Was Seeing and Her Romantic Partners
- Occurred
- Jun 1, 2023
- Published
- Apr 14, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Orange County prosecutors said Costa Mesa, California, police officer Robert Jay Josett used the department's Flock Safety license-plate reader system between 2023 and 2024 to locate a woman he was seeing and vehicles belonging to her romantic partners, including after he was placed on leave. In 2026, Josett pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unauthorized computer access and fraud, repeated phone calls, and contempt of court.
Developers
- Surveillance technology developers
- Flock Safety
- Automated license plate reader (ALPR) developers
Deployers
- Stalkers
- Robert Jay Josett
- Law enforcement
- Costa Mesa Police Department (California)
Harmed parties
- Woman and romantic partners tracked by Robert Jay Josett
- Victims of stalking
- Privacy
- Individuals whose license plate data were accessed for non-law-enforcement purposes
Tags
- response
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: Police officer misused license-plate reader surveillance system for personal stalking, resulting in criminal charges.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8