MPD officer criminally charged, accused of misusing license plate recognition system for personal reasons
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A Milwaukee police officer is accused of abusing the badge.
Police say the officer used a license plate reader for personal reasons. The surveillance system in question tracks vehicles, and not everyone thinks that's a good thing.
Hours before these charges were dropped, CBS 58's Pavlina Osta talked with police about the cameras, what they are used for and how police prevent misuse.
"We have a SOP a standard operating procedure in place which details the proper usage," said Paul Lough, Criminal Investigation Bureau Inceptor.
On Tuesday, Osta talked to Milwaukee Police about the department's contract with flock, the tech company behind these license plate readers, and how the system works.
"Flock is a useful tool for our criminal investigations and other investigations we have the permitters set in place to ensure there isn't misconduct but if there is discovered misconduct, we are going to hold people accountable," said Lough.
Milwaukee Police officer Josue Ayala is now facing one count of attempted misconduct in public office. This comes after he allegedly used Flock cameras to run the license plates of two people nearly 200 times in the span of three months.
"There is no guarantee that an officer would do something that is not in line with what we would expect or what you've been trained but what there is an guarantee is that there will be response," said Police Chief Jeffrey Norman
Detectives say Ayala was in a relationship with one of the victims. The other person was allegedly their ex.
"This is something this department takes very seriously; this is something that is unacceptable in regard to the responsibility that we expect," said Chief Norman.
The complaint says the victim suspected Ayala after using the website haveIbeenflocked.com. A quick search shows user, J AYA an operator at Milwaukee WI PD, made 575 searches the week of March 23, 2025, but only searched three plates.
"Theres a pattern around the country of law enforcement officers using automatic license plate to track harass and abuse dare I say the word stalk romantic interests there's a massive unaccountability and transparency," said Jon McCary Jones, Policy Analysis ACLU.
Chief Norman says they are ramping up how they do their internal audits to prevent this from happening again.
"We do have audit systems in place supervisor overview ensure we are running the reports, but we are still looking over how we can do more, ensuring we can temper or lessen this misuse from happening again," said Chief Norman.
McCary Jones is with the civil rights group ACLU he says more needs to be done.
"There should be an internal policy that is accountable to the common council that requires warrants for each search a strict purpose for limitations to keep this for violence felonies missing person or stole vehicles," said McCary Jones.
Ayala is suspended and will resign as part of negotiations with the District Attorney's office.
"Accountability is real and that's important for the public to know I'm not going to tolerate this on my watch," said Chief Norman.
The President of the Milwaukee Police Association, Alexander Ayala didn't want to comment at this time, but he did tell CBS 58 he and Josue are not related.
If convicted, the officer may face up to nine months in prison. His first court date is set for next week.
