Description: 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 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.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Surveillance technology developers , Flock Safety and Automated license plate reader (ALPR) developers developed an AI system deployed by Stalkers , Robert Jay Josett , Law enforcement and Costa Mesa Police Department (California), which harmed Woman and romantic partners tracked by Robert Jay Josett , Victims of stalking , Privacy and Individuals whose license plate data were accessed for non-law-enforcement purposes.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Surveillance technology , Law enforcement databases , Flock Safety automated license plate reader system and Automated license plate readers (ALPR)
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1697
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2023-06-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Kimberly Edds, Orange County District Attorney's Office post-incident response
SANTA ANA, Calif. -- A former Costa Mesa police officer pleaded guilty to contacting his mistress thousands of times through text, telephone calls, and social media messages, sometimes more than 100 times in a day, over nine months and use…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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