Alpharetta police officer misused the Flock system to track his former partner and a colleague
Police officer Dustin Bozzo from Alpharetta, Georgia, searched the Flock system 56× for the license plate of his former partner and 29× for the license plate of another colleague between March and May 2026. He resigned in August following an internal investigation, and a criminal investigation is underway.
According to documents obtained by Wired through a public records request, police officer Dustin Bozzo of the police department in Alpharetta (Georgia) misused the Flock system to track two colleagues from his own department. Between March and May 2026, he searched for the license plate of his former partner, also a police officer, a total of 56×. After noticing that her vehicle was often near another officer’s car, he also searched for that officer’s license plate, 29×.
According to an internal report written by Sergeant Jabbar Braithwaite, the relationship between Bozzo and his former partner was said to violate the department’s ban on workplace relationships. Several people in the department reported that the pair spent time together while on duty and failed to perform their assigned duties, which led to their assignment to different shifts and a written directive calling for “acceptable workplace behavior”; according to one report, however, the pair continued to meet, including a nighttime meeting in a park while Bozzo was on duty. According to the documents, when searching in the Flock system, which requires users to provide a reason for their query, Bozzo almost always selected the categories “wanted person” or “traffic violation” — in his own words, because it was “faster.” Bozzo claims that his motive was not jealousy but concern for the safety of his former partner.
Bozzo was placed on paid leave on 20 July 2026 and resigned on 5 August 2026 following an internal investigation. Lieutenant Jason Hiott of the police department in Alpharetta confirmed to Wired that a criminal investigation led by the criminal investigations division of the same department is underway. Police Chief Trent Lindgren said that the investigation would likely conclude soon and that the department acted immediately after discovering the misuse. Bozzo did not comment on the case and changed both his profile photo and his name on Facebook after being contacted by Wired. According to Wired, this is one of at least 45 documented cases in the US in which police officers misused the Flock system to track current or former partners. Details can be found in the source article.
Why it matters
The case shows how easily an employee with access to an automated surveillance system, such as the Flock network of license plate readers, can misuse the tool for personal surveillance without immediate detection — according to the documents, Bozzo circumvented the mandatory requirement to justify queries by selecting unrelated categories. For institutions and companies deploying similar surveillance and monitoring technologies, this provides concrete evidence of the risk of misuse by internal staff and an argument for stricter auditing of access and sanctions, not just technical controls.
Relevant practical impact
What this means
For a business
The incident demonstrates the risk of employees with access misusing surveillance systems such as Flock and highlights the need for audit controls and clear sanctions at organizations operating or using similar ALPR networks.
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Event sources
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