San Jose Officer Fired for Misusing Flock Camera Data in Domestic Abuse Case
A San Jose police officer was fired after using the Flock license plate tracking system to share a domestic abuse victim’s location with the suspect, who was his cousin. The case was referred to prosecutors and the state police standards commission, but no criminal charge was filed. The dismissal adds to scrutiny of license plate readers and California’s lack of new regulations.
Joseph said the officer accessed Flock camera data without authorization last year on his personal phone to look up the vehicle of a woman allegedly abused by one of the officer’s family members, then sent the information to his cousin. The San Jose Mercury News reported that the suspect in the domestic abuse case was the officer’s cousin. Police discovered the unauthorized access when the woman told them that her alleged abuser said he knew her location.
The department placed the officer on administrative leave immediately and opened a criminal investigation into his actions, Joseph said. “I was furious that an officer would betray the public’s trust in that manner, that he would not understand how serious of a violation that is,” Joseph said. He did not publicly identify the officer. The San Jose Police Department referred the case to the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, but the officer has not been charged with a crime. The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Joseph told the Mercury News that state lawmakers should pass legislation making it easier to charge such violations as crimes. The police department also referred the officer to the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which can bar him from working again as a law enforcement officer in California, the newspaper reported.
License plate reading technology has drawn criticism, recurring protests and vandalism from both the right and the left as law enforcement agencies have deployed tens of thousands of cameras around the country. Concerns include privacy, mass surveillance, false positives and police misuse of the technology. Immigrant rights groups have also raised alarms because law enforcement agencies increasingly share the data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which uses it to advance Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Dozens of law enforcement officers have used license-plate readers to stalk women, according to the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm. The California Assembly adjourned this month without acting on a bill that would have imposed new regulations on license-plate reading technology. CalMatters reported that it was the fifth consecutive year California lawmakers declined to impose new safeguards on readers such as Flock. The Assembly passed a bill that would have imposed new rules, including a requirement to delete data unrelated to an investigation after two months, but Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed it.