A San Jose police officer has been fired after using the city’s Flock license plate camera network to help a domestic violence suspect locate his alleged victim.
The officer, who had authorized access to the automated reader system, used his personal phone to enter the database and provide vehicle location data to his cousin, San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph said in a statement on Friday. The cousin then used that information to track down the woman who had accused him of abuse.
“When an officer violates the public’s trust this severely, my responsibility is clear: that person cannot remain in a position of police authority, and they cannot wear the San Jose badge,” Joseph said. “This technology is new; the standard is not.”
The termination followed a yearlong internal investigation, with the officer officially fired in April. Despite the breach, the officer did not technically commit a crime because he possessed authorized database access at the time of the incident.
The case has prompted an immediate policy change. Law enforcement officials are now barred from accessing the Flock system on their personal devices, closing the loophole that allowed the unauthorized lookup.
San Jose’s roughly 500 Flock cameras have become a flashpoint in broader debates over surveillance and privacy. A lawsuit filed in 2025 against the city and police department alleges the cameras violate individuals’ rights, adding legal pressure to the growing controversy.
“It makes me feel less safe. I feel like they’re trying to just kind of mass monitor everyone,” one resident told ABC 7.
Binh Nguyen, another San Jose resident, offered a contrasting view. “With technology like that, with a flock camera that runs 24 seven, you can’t do any more illegal like you used to,” Nguyen said.
The San Jose case is not isolated. A Costa Mesa police officer pleaded guilty in April to using Flock readers to track his mistress and a romantic rival. Separately, a New York sheriff’s investigator was arrested last week for allegedly using the same system to search for her ex-girlfriend’s car thousands of times.
Neither the fired San Jose officer nor his cousin has been criminally charged in connection with the domestic violence tracking incident.
The fired officer’s actions unfolded when he accessed the Flock database through his personal phone and passed along the vehicle location to his cousin, enabling the alleged abuser to find the woman who had reported him. The breach triggered the yearlong probe that concluded with his April dismissal.