A Georgia Officer Ran 85 Surveillance Searches on Two Colleagues Using a Licence-Plate Tracking System

Key points

• Alpharetta, Georgia patrolman Dustin Bozzo ran 56 Flock Safety searches on an ex-romantic partner between March and May 2025, and a further 29 on a second officer she was seen near.
• Flock Safety is an automatic licence-plate reader network, technology that logs where a vehicle has been spotted and when, sold to police departments across the United States.
• Bozzo resigned on 5 August 2025 after being placed on paid leave on 20 July, following an internal investigation.
• At least 45 documented cases of US officers misusing Flock Safety to track current or former romantic partners have now been recorded.
• An Alpharetta Police Department criminal investigation into Bozzo's conduct is ongoing.

Dustin Bozzo used to work the streets of Alpharetta, a suburb about 30 miles north of Atlanta. His surveillance tool wasn't a car or a tip-off. It was software on his work computer.

What did he actually do?

Between March and May 2025, Bozzo ran 85 searches on two colleagues using Flock Safety, an automatic licence-plate reader (ALPR) network. An ALPR system scans number plates as cars pass roadside cameras, logging each sighting with a time stamp and location. Officers can then query the database to find where a particular vehicle has been.

Bozzo searched for his ex-partner's plate 56 times. When he noticed another officer's car kept appearing near hers, he began querying that vehicle too, 29 times over the same period. After learning she'd borrowed her uncle's car following an accident, he searched for that plate 18 times between 4 and 14 April.

For nearly every search, internal audit logs show Bozzo listed the reason as either "Wanted Person" or "Traffic Infraction". When investigators asked why, he said it was "just a quick keystroke."

Did he admit wrongdoing?

Yes, but with conditions. Bozzo told investigators he wasn't trying to intimidate anyone, and that he was checking his ex had arrived home safely because she often drove late at night. He said the second officer's car appearing nearby struck him as puzzling rather than threatening.

Internal affairs sergeant Jabbar Braithwaite, who wrote the full investigation report obtained by Wired, found no evidence of outright malice. He still concluded that Bozzo's use of Flock was "inconsistent with Department policy and the authorised use of the system," whatever his motivation.

Bozzo was placed on paid leave on 20 July and resigned on 5 August. A criminal investigation is underway in the department's Criminal Investigations Division.

Why does this matter beyond one officer?

Flock Safety is installed in departments across the United States, giving officers fast, detailed access to where almost any registered vehicle has travelled. Enormously useful for legitimate policing. Also, as this case shows, easy to point at a personal target.

At least 45 documented incidents now exist of US officers misusing Flock to track romantic partners or ex-partners. That figure likely understates reality: most departments don't publish audit logs, and many cases surface only when a victim complains. As we reported on 23 August, forty-six officers have been accused of such misuse and the company has so far responded with small changes that lawmakers on both sides consider insufficient.

For drivers, the practical point is blunt. Your car's movements are being logged constantly in many cities, sitting inside systems that individual officers can query, and the controls on personal misuse depend heavily on whether departments actually review their own audit trails.

Alpharetta's police chief told Wired the department holds itself to a "high standard" and acted immediately once misuse was spotted. The audit trail that caught Bozzo was built into Flock's system. Whether other departments run the same checks is a different question entirely.

Common questions

Can police officers search licence-plate databases for any reason they want?

Technically, officers are restricted to work-related queries, and most systems log every search with a required reason code. In practice, oversight varies: some departments audit logs regularly while others rarely do.

What can ordinary people do if they think they are being tracked this way?

If you believe a law-enforcement officer is misusing surveillance tools to monitor you, contact the department's internal affairs unit in writing and, if that fails, your state attorney general's office, which can compel records.