OOF-AII-634813

Former Costa Mesa, California, Police Officer Reportedly Used Flock Safety License-Plate Reader System to Track Woman He Was Seeing and Her Romantic Partners

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.

Event date
2023-06-01
Country
United States of America
Severity
High
Evidence state
Single-source

Assessment status

Generated from available public incident evidence using OOF® governance methodology. It is not an official investigation, legal determination, regulatory finding, certification, or OOF® Approved Assessment.

View source record from AI Incident Database (Responsible AI Collaborative)

Assessment confidence dimensions

Source corroboration
Single-source

Measures source-group corroboration only; it does not establish factual truth.

Extraction completeness
Moderate

Measures populated source fields after deterministic normalization; it does not measure correctness.

Methodological assignment confidence
Moderate

Measures automated assignment support; substantive correctness requires authorized human review.

Known facts from the incident record

  • The incident record identifies the event date as 2023-06-01.
  • The incident record identifies the location as United States of America.

Reported claims

  • 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.

Material unknowns

  • Independent corroboration is not established in the available incident record.

Primary governance problem

The incident appears to expose a governance problem involving safety, enforcement. Available reporting supports preliminary methodological interpretation, not a finding of fault or non-compliance.

Architecture intelligence

ASGA™ — Autonomous Systems Governance Architecture

Contributing architecture

The reported safety, enforcement concern falls within the governed questions represented by ASGA™ — Autonomous Systems Governance Architecture.

Governance focus: How should safety, enforcement be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?

Deeper methodology is withheld because the available evidence does not justify a Parent Standard or Core Module.

Preliminary governance questions

  • How should safety, enforcement be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?
  • What operational authority and controls applied to Stalkers, Robert Jay Josett, Law Enforcement, Costa Mesa Police Department (California) at the relevant time?
  • What evidence would establish how Surveillance Technology, Law Enforcement Databases, Flock Safety Automated License Plate Reader System, Automated License Plate Readers (Alpr) produced or enabled the reported outcome?
  • What additional independent evidence is required to resolve the material evidence gaps?

Evidence gaps and limitations

  • Only one independent source group is represented; corroboration is not established.
  • AI technology is not specified in the source record.
  • industry is not specified in the source record.
  • AI system type is not specified in the source record.

Return to the public incident index