FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- New details are emerging about a former Katy Police Department officer being charged with misusing Flock cameras to track his ex-wife for months, according to authorities.
Sergio Rodriguez was criminally charged with the misuse of official information and stalking, according to Katy PD. He has been terminated from his position with Katy PD, officials said.
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Through an extensive investigation, authorities say that Rodriguez had misused the Flock system to run his ex-wife's vehicle license plate, according to Katy PD.
Katy PD sent the following full statement:
"The use of the Flock camera system, along with other investigative tools that are used by Police Officers are strictly for authorized law enforcement investigations only. Ironically, the Flock camera system that was abused is the same system that was used to bring formal charges against the officer.
The Katy Police Department has used the Flock system for the last five years, and we have been able to solve hundreds of crimes each year with the use of this technology; it has been one of the best crime-fighting tools developed in modern policing. Our citizens have given us the trust and ability to use these tools properly for law enforcement purposes. The Katy Police Department remains fully committed to protecting our community while fiercely guarding the privacy and civil liberties of every resident. We recognize that adopting advanced public safety technology requires a foundation of absolute transparency and strict oversight. To ensure our automated license plate readers (LPRs) are used ethically and responsibly, we have established rigorous operational safeguards.
Flock Safety has assisted us with a very robust analytic system that creates a permanent, unalterable digital audit trail of who conducted the search, when it occurred, and why. Flock has since put in place an updated system that reviews itself and monitors abnormal search behaviors and, if found, will trigger immediate, automatic lockouts and immediate reporting.
As a department, we have put in place our own internal audits done by the Chief of Police and Command Staff. On a monthly basis, we audit a random sample of Officers, and a quarterly audit is done on all Officers that have search capabilities. We have also restricted the search capabilities of the system to Officers with an investigative role; not every Patrol Officer has search capabilities on the Flock system.
We continue to hold our officers to the absolute highest ethical and professional standards. Abuse or misuse of this technology will not be tolerated. Any violation of our strict usage policies will result in immediate termination of system access and swift disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment and legal prosecution."