FORT PIERCE, FL — A former Fort Pierce police officer has been arrested after investigators say he repeatedly used the city’s license-plate camera system to monitor his ex-girlfriend. Police identified the man as Josepher Crutchfield and said he faces four felony counts of unauthorized computer access.
According to Chief David Smith, the searches had no legitimate law enforcement purpose and were mostly done while Crutchfield was off duty. Digital audits showed the database was queried for his ex’s vehicle nearly 400 times between October 2025 and July 2026. The arrest came on Sept. 8, 2026, after a criminal investigation into how the system was used.
Police say the searches centered on one woman’s car and went on for months
Fort Pierce police said Crutchfield used Flock surveillance cameras to track his ex-girlfriend’s vehicle far more often than would be consistent with any normal case work. Chief Smith said the searches were concentrated over a period of months and were not tied to an active investigation.
The scale of the activity is what pushed the case into criminal territory. Investigators found that Crutchfield searched for the woman’s car nearly 400 times across roughly nine months. Police described the behavior as an abuse of access to a system designed for community safety.
Investigators also examined other police databases and state systems
The Flock camera network was not the only tool investigators say Crutchfield misused. Police accused him of using three other law-enforcement databases over several years to look up people’s names and personal information.
Reporting on the investigation said those systems included FCIC, NCIC, DAVID and TLO. The case broadened once detectives realized the surveillance activity was part of a wider pattern of accessing records in ways that did not appear to serve a proper police purpose. Officials have not said that the other searches were linked to a specific criminal case.
Past discipline and a resignation followed renewed scrutiny
Crutchfield’s arrest also drew attention because of a prior internal affairs case. He was suspended for two days without pay in 2021 after investigators found that he harassed several co-workers in the department.
He resigned on Aug. 18, days after questions from media outlets and after a formal criminal probe began. He was later booked into the St. Lucie County Jail on an $80,000 secured bond. Under Florida law, willfully exceeding authorized access on a computer network can be charged as a third-degree felony, with up to five years in prison per count.
Fort Pierce tightened access to license-plate readers after the case broke
The arrest triggered an immediate review of how Fort Pierce police can use the ALPR system. Chief Smith said the department’s cameras are meant for public safety, not for officers to exploit for personal reasons.
As a result, access to the license-plate readers is now limited to lieutenants and higher-ranking officers. The department also cut how long the data is stored from 30 days to seven days. In addition, officers can only use the system for cases tied to a forcible felony or a missing person, and every query now requires a case number.
Florida’s license-plate-reader fight has widened beyond one department
Crutchfield’s arrest landed as Florida officials were already scaling back the use of license-plate readers on state highway rights-of-way. Weeks earlier, the Florida Department of Transportation revoked existing permits and told local agencies to remove the devices by Sept. 30.
Governor Ron DeSantis also weighed in in late August, warning about the creation of an “AI surveillance state” and pointing to recent allegations that officers had used Flock cameras to track ex-partners. The Fort Pierce case now joins similar cases in Haines City and Sarasota, adding pressure on police departments that argue ALPR systems are primarily a community-safety tool.
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