AI incident ·
Former Costa Mesa, California, Police Officer Reportedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Track Woman He Was Seeing and Her Romantic Partners
On this page 8 sections
In brief
An AI system built by Surveillance technology developers, Flock Safety and 1 other and deployed by Stalkers, Robert Jay Josett and 2 others allegedly harmed Woman and romantic partners tracked by Robert Jay Josett, Victims of stalking and 2 others.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 1 report
What happened
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.
Editor's notes
(1) 06/2023–12/2023: Josett reportedly used CLETS for unauthorized searches and the Costa Mesa Police Department's Flock system to locate a woman he was seeing and vehicles belonging to her romantic interests; (2) 12/2023: placed on leave; (3) 06/2024: reportedly accessed Flock again to locate the woman's new boyfriend in Torrance; (4) 06/28/2024: served with an emergency protective order and notice of intent to terminate, then arrested after violating the order; (5) 04/14/2026: Orange County prosecutors announced his guilty plea and sentence to three years' informal probation and a 52-week domestic-violence program.
Laws on record for this risk area
No instrument on record yet covers this risk area where it happened. See the open queue.
Matched from the record's risk category and country to the instruments in effect recorded here: a law listed covers the area, which is not a finding that it applies to this incident. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (1)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Stalkers Robert Jay Josett Law enforcement Costa Mesa Police Department (California)
- Alleged developer
- Surveillance technology developers Flock Safety Automated license plate reader (ALPR) developers
- Alleged harmed party
- 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
AI systems implicated
Surveillance technologyLaw enforcement databasesFlock Safety automated license plate reader systemAutomated license plate readers (ALPR)
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
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- Risk subdomain
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- Causal entity
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- Intent
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- Timing
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- Harm level
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Related incidents
Linked by editors or by text similarity in the source dataset.
Other incidents involving Stalkers
- Stow, Massachusetts, Police Officer Allegedly Used Flock License-Plate Reader System to Track Former Romantic Partner
- ChatGPT Was Alleged to Have Reinforced Pittsburgh Man's Stalking and Threats Against Women
- Former Coffee County, Georgia, Deputy Allegedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Track Woman
- Kechi, Kansas Police Lieutenant Victor Heiar Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Monitor Estranged Wife
- Fort Bend County, Texas, Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Reportedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System for 189 Non-Law-Enforcement Searches
- Queensland Man Allegedly Distributed Purportedly AI-Generated Sexual Posters Falsely Advertising Women for Sex
Source record: incident #1697 on the AI Incident Database · all 1 report