Shelby County, Tenn. deputy misused plate-tracking database to track ex-wife 100+ times; charged with stalking, harassment

On August 8, 2024, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) relieved deputy Thadius Gordon, 38, of duty with pay after he was charged with stalking and harassment. An affidavit filed in the case said an audit of a law-enforcement database used to track license plates found Gordon had searched his ex-wife's Tennessee tag roughly 20 times over a four-day span in early August 2024, and more than 100 times in total. Gordon, an SCSO employee since April 2014, is accused of using the results to monitor her location and movements without her knowledge.

SCSO Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner confirmed the database access, describing it as a system "often used to track license plates, vehicles for criminals" to which deputies have "indiscriminate access." Buckner said the office was "looking at our policies and procedures to see what are the ways that we can share who is accessing the information and ensure they are using it for a legitimate reason." Gordon's attorney, Arthur Horne III, disputed the stalking characterization, saying Gordon's outreach concerned his ex-wife's safety rather than surveillance of her whereabouts. Gordon was released on $1,000 bond.

The case fits a recurring pattern this archive tracks under the alpr-personal-misuse-by-officers episode: an officer with standing access to an automated license-plate-reader database used it to track a partner or ex-partner for personal reasons, and the misuse surfaced only after a complaint prompted an audit of search logs -- not because any safeguard in the system itself stopped it.