San Jose police officer fired for sharing Flock camera data with cousin, a domestic-violence suspect

On September 11, 2026, San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph publicly confirmed that the department had fired an officer for accessing the city's Flock automated license-plate-reader (ALPR) database on his personal phone and sharing a vehicle's location with a relative — his cousin — who was the suspect in a domestic-violence case. The cousin used the location data to find the victim. The victim had reported in February 2025 that her accuser had somehow learned her whereabouts; a police audit traced the access to the officer, and the department's investigation concluded with his firing in April 2026, five months before Joseph's public statement. [4] "This is a betrayal of the public trust — plain and simple," Joseph said. "There's no other way to put it."

The department said it placed the officer on administrative leave when the misuse was discovered, opened a criminal investigation into his conduct, and referred that investigation to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office. The officer was ultimately terminated. Joseph said he has since changed department policy so that Flock data can no longer be accessed on a personal device.

San Jose's Flock network has been the subject of separate privacy criticism from groups including the immigrant-rights organization SIREN, which cited this case as evidence of the broader risk of abuse the camera network carries. The incident follows a documented pattern of officers around the country using ALPR access for personal rather than investigative purposes.