A San Jose police officer was fired after using the department’s Flock license plate tracking system to share the location of a woman with the suspect accused of abusing her. Chief Paul Joseph confirmed the officer accessed Flock camera data last year without authorization on his personal phone, targeting the vehicle of a woman allegedly abused by one of the officer’s family members. The officer then sent that information to his cousin, who was the suspect in the domestic abuse case, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The unauthorized access was discovered when the woman told police that her alleged abuser had told her he knew her location. The department placed the officer on administrative leave and launched a criminal investigation. However, the officer was not charged with a crime, and the district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chief Joseph told the Mercury News that state lawmakers should pass legislation to make it easier to charge such violations as crimes. The San Jose police department also referred the officer to the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which can bar him from working in law enforcement in the state again. The incident highlights concerns over the use of license plate reading technology, which has drawn criticism and protests from both the right and the left. Law enforcement agencies have deployed tens of thousands of cameras across the country, raising concerns about privacy, mass surveillance, false positives, and misuse of the technology. License plate readers have also raised concerns among immigrant rights groups, as law enforcement increasingly shares data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE has used this data to support the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, which has been widely criticized. According to the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, dozens of law enforcement officers have used license-plate readers to stalk women, further fueling concerns about the technology’s misuse. California lawmakers adjourned this month without taking action on a bill that would have imposed new regulations on license-plate reading technology. This marks the fifth straight year that lawmakers have declined to impose new safeguards on systems like Flock, according to CalMatters. Earlier this year, the California Assembly passed a bill that would have required the deletion of data unrelated to an investigation after two months, but Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the legislation, leaving the issue unresolved.