Niceville, Florida officer used Flock camera network to stalk fellow officer, harass spouse

On October 10, 2025, the Niceville Police Department in Okaloosa County, Florida, arrested one of its own officers, Coty Wayne Hall, after an internal audit found he had misused the department's Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader network and other restricted law-enforcement databases to track and harass a fellow officer and that officer's spouse. The department said the audit, covering January through October 2025, uncovered unauthorized personal-information searches; a probable-cause affidavit later cited by R News put the total at nearly 200 unauthorized Flock searches over that ten-month span, alongside access to the FCIC/NCIC, eAgent, and Evidence.com law-enforcement databases, used to track the couple's movements on and off duty.

Hall was charged with violating Florida Statute 815.06(2)(a), which covers unauthorized access to computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices. Niceville Police Chief Mark Hayse said in a statement that the department "remains committed to maintaining public trust and accountability" and that its internal-oversight procedures were designed to detect violations of policy and law when they occur. The City of Niceville fired Hall after the allegations became public.

Flock Safety's license-plate-reader network links thousands of local police agencies into a shared, searchable pool of vehicle location data, and searches are logged but not restricted at the time they are made — an officer types a reason and the system does not verify it. Hall's case is one of a recurring pattern of officers using that access to track people for personal reasons rather than law-enforcement purposes, with the misuse surfacing only after months of searches, once an audit or complaint prompted a review of the logs.

Updates

2026-04-20 — Hall pleaded no contest, avoided jail time [4]

In Okaloosa County Circuit Court, Hall pleaded no contest to charges stemming from the case after the State of Florida agreed, as part of a plea agreement, to amend four felony counts of unauthorized computer access to first-degree misdemeanors. Hall claimed he and the officer he had tracked were involved in a consensual relationship. The court withheld adjudication of guilt, meaning no formal conviction will be entered if Hall completes probation, and he avoided immediate jail time under a sentence recommendation signed the same day.