An Arizona police officer resigned after he was investigated for misusing his police department's automated license plate reader data.
Apache Junction Police Chief Michael Pooley said an officer used the Flock Safety system to track his wife in April and tried getting the Casa Grande Police Department to conduct a welfare check on her.
The officer told Casa Grande police that he had used his department's license plate reader system to track down his wife in Casa Grande, according to Pooley. The officer had also asked Apache Junction dispatchers for help in checking the system so he could do the welfare check, Pooley said.
Both parties reported the officer's actions to Apache Junction police officials. The officer was swiftly placed on administrative
leave, his access was restricted and officials initiated an internal investigation, Pooley said.
The investigation recently wrapped up, and the officer resigned from the department. Pooley said that if he didn't, he would have been fired.
"We don't want to lose the trust of the people," Pooley said.
Automated license plate readers, especially those made by Flock, have been under intense scrutiny in recent months in Arizona and across the nation. There's been public outcry on both sides of the political spectrum that the technology leads to a lack of transparency, privacy violations and misuse by law enforcement.
Just recently, Chandler terminated a $153,000 contract with Flock after a police employee misused it, and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office decided not to renew its contract, citing 4th Amendment concerns. Other cities have had to grapple with restricting records when people want to know if their vehicle has been caught on camera.
Pooley said he was a strong advocate of the technology. Like many law enforcement personnel, he says it has been a helpful tool in solving crimes for them, including a recent Turquoise Alert.
Apache Junction police implemented Flock about four years ago when Pooley became the Department's leader, he said. They currently have about 35 cameras and share with more than 60 state agencies, but not federal, he said.
'This was a good officer'
Pooley said the officer, Joshua McDaniel, was fairly new. He was with the department for around a year and a half and was a military veteran, Pooley said.
He was also the officer who tried saving Officer Gabriel Facio, who died days after being shot when confronting a driver with a gun in 2025, Pooley said.
Pooley said it wasn't an excuse but wanted to share some perspective. McDaniel had gone through a lot in the last year and they had tried to get him some help.
Regarding the welfare check, though, McDaniel should not have taken the matter into his own hands, Pooley said.
Pooley said what happened has not turned into a criminal investigation. It can't, because there is currently no state law stating that what McDaniel did was a crime, he said. If he used police databases to access people's personal information, that would have been a violation of the law.
Pooley said he would "love to see" it be a crime if people intentionally access license plate data for personal use.
The Police Department is not altering their use of Flock, Pooley said, acknowledging how other agencies have stepped away from it.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona police officer resigns after misusing Flock system
