Two Former Pinellas Deputies Arrested, Accused of Using Flock and State Databases to Track a Teen Girl and a Woman

Two former Pinellas County sheriff's deputies have been arrested and charged with official misconduct after internal investigations found they used law enforcement databases, including the Flock license plate reader network, to look up a 17-year-old girl and a woman they were personally interested in, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Former deputy Travis Stanton is charged with one count of accessing a computer or electronic device without authority and one count of official misconduct. Former deputy Karl Gwynne, 57, is charged with four counts of accessing a computer or electronic device without authority and one count of official misconduct. Both men resigned while under investigation, and the sheriff described the two cases as separate and unrelated.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Gwynne ran queries on a woman 381 times across five law enforcement databases between January 2025 and July 2026, including roughly 300 searches of the agency's automatic license plate reader system. Stanton is accused of using several systems, among them Florida's vehicle registration database, to gather information on a teenage girl and her family.

The arrests land at a moment of intense scrutiny of license plate reader technology in Florida. State officials ordered Flock cameras removed from state highways by Sept. 30 amid concerns about misuse, and several Florida officers have been fired and criminally charged in recent weeks over allegations that they searched the systems for personal reasons.

The case against Travis Stanton

According to the sheriff's office, Stanton had been visiting a 17-year-old girl at the fast-food restaurant where she works and was romantically interested in her. Investigators said he used several databases to gather information about the girl and her vehicle, and that he searched her family as well.

Investigators said Stanton ran the girl's license plate through Florida's vehicle registration system using the computer in his patrol car. Law enforcement officers have access to that system for official purposes such as traffic stops and criminal investigations, and personal use is prohibited.

Stanton was hired by the sheriff's office on Nov. 13, 2017, and resigned on Sept. 25, 2026, while under investigation, according to the agency. He was arrested after his resignation. The Florida Press is not identifying the girl, who is a minor.

At the Sept. 30 news conference, Gualtieri condemned the conduct, saying both former deputies knew what they did was wrong and singling out the involvement of a 17-year-old girl as especially troubling.

The case against Karl Gwynne

The investigation into Gwynne centered on his repeated searches of a woman he wanted to date. According to the sheriff's office, audits showed that Gwynne ran 381 queries related to the woman across five law enforcement databases over roughly 18 months, from January 2025 through July 2026.

About 300 of those searches were run through the agency's automatic license plate reader system, which can show where and when a particular vehicle passed a camera. That capability allowed the queries to reveal patterns of the woman's movements, according to the investigation's findings as described by the sheriff.

Gualtieri said Gwynne initially told detectives the searches were for official purposes. He later admitted, according to the sheriff, that he ran them because he wanted to date the woman and she had rejected him.

Gwynne resigned on Sept. 11, 2026, the same day investigators questioned him about the database activity, the sheriff's office said. He faces four counts of unauthorized computer access and one count of official misconduct.

The charges under Florida law

Background: Official misconduct under Florida law applies when a public servant, with corrupt intent to obtain a benefit for themselves or to harm another person, knowingly falsifies or improperly uses official records or information. It is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Unauthorized access to a computer, computer system or electronic device is addressed in Florida's computer crimes statute. Depending on the circumstances, the offense can be charged as a felony, and each unauthorized access can be charged as a separate count, which is reflected in the four counts Gwynne faces.

Both men are presumed innocent. The charges are accusations, and the cases will now proceed through the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, which will decide whether to file formal charges and on what counts. Court records did not immediately show whether either man had retained an attorney or entered a plea.

Prosecutors in similar Florida cases have sometimes resolved database misuse charges through plea agreements or pretrial diversion, particularly for first-time offenders, while cases involving minors or stalking-like conduct have drawn tougher treatment. How the State Attorney's Office handles these two cases will be closely watched by privacy advocates.

Gaps in oversight

The Pinellas cases have prompted questions about how agencies monitor officers' use of powerful surveillance tools. In the days after the arrests, Gualtieri acknowledged gaps in oversight of Flock-style camera searches, according to local reporting, a notable admission from one of the state's most prominent sheriffs.

Automatic license plate reader systems log every search, which allows supervisors to review who ran a query and when. But those logs are only useful if someone reviews them. In Gwynne's case, the searches continued for about a year and a half before the internal investigation brought them to light.

Background: Most law enforcement databases in Florida require users to enter a reason for each search and to agree that the information will be used only for official purposes. Misuse of the state's driver and vehicle records system has led to discipline and criminal cases against officers across Florida for years, and privacy advocates have argued that license plate cameras, which track movement over time, create an even greater risk of abuse.

Supporters of the technology, including many sheriffs, say license plate readers are an important tool for finding stolen cars, missing persons and suspects in violent crimes. They argue that the misconduct of individual officers should be addressed through audits and prosecutions rather than by restricting the technology itself.

A statewide reckoning over license plate readers

The Pinellas arrests follow a series of similar cases elsewhere in Florida. In August, a Sarasota police officer was fired and arrested after an investigation found hundreds of queries associated with him and a single vehicle over a period in 2025.

State transportation officials ordered Flock cameras removed from state highway rights-of-way by Sept. 30, a decision tied to concerns that officers were querying the systems for purposes unrelated to legitimate law enforcement work. The Florida Press has previously reported on that order, which affects cameras along state roads but not necessarily those placed by local governments on county and city streets.

The timing means the Pinellas arrests were announced on the same day as the state's removal deadline. Privacy advocates have argued that the cases show the need for clearer statewide rules on who may search license plate data and how those searches must be audited.

For residents of Pinellas County, the cases raise a basic question about how their personal information, including vehicle registrations and the movements of their cars, is protected when it is held by law enforcement agencies. The sheriff's office has said both cases were uncovered through its own internal investigations.

What the cases mean for residents

Background: Driver and vehicle records held by the state are protected by the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994, which limits how personal information from motor vehicle records may be used and allows people whose information was obtained for an impermissible purpose to sue. Florida has seen a number of civil lawsuits over the years brought by people whose driver records were searched by officers without a law enforcement reason.

License plate reader data is treated differently. The cameras capture images of plates in public places, and the records show where a vehicle was seen at a specific time. Taken together over months, those records can reveal where a person lives, works and spends time, which is why privacy advocates describe repeated searches of a single vehicle as a form of surveillance.

People who believe their information has been misused by a law enforcement officer can file a complaint with the officer's agency, which typically triggers an internal affairs review and an audit of search logs. In both Pinellas cases, the sheriff's office said its own investigators identified the conduct and referred it for criminal charges.

The cases also highlight how much sensitive information is available to individual officers from a patrol car terminal. A single deputy can look up a vehicle's owner, address and, through license plate reader networks, recent travel history within seconds, a level of access that depends on strong supervision to prevent abuse.

What's next

Stanton and Gwynne will face first appearances and further proceedings in Pinellas County court. The State Attorney's Office for the Sixth Judicial Circuit will review the cases and determine formal charges.

Because both men resigned, the sheriff's office has no further employment action to take, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission could review their law enforcement certifications. Officers found to have committed official misconduct can lose their certification, which would bar them from working in law enforcement in Florida.

The arrests also add to a growing list of Florida officers accused of misusing license plate reader systems in 2026, and they are likely to figure in the continuing statewide debate over where the cameras should be placed and who should be allowed to search the data they collect.

The sheriff's office has indicated it is reviewing its oversight of database searches. The Florida Press will follow the cases as they move through court and any changes to how Pinellas and other Florida agencies audit license plate reader use.