GOODYEAR, Arizona — A Goodyear police officer who was dispatched to help a domestic violence victim instead searched her license plate through the department's Flock camera network 36 times over about five weeks, after switching off his body-worn camera during her first call for help and never filing a report on it, according to the department's internal affairs report. The full findings of that report were reported by Arizona's Family (KPHO/KTVK) on Monday night, November 9, and in detail by Focal News on Tuesday, November 10.
Source: Focal News, Nov. 10, 2026
The case began on January 4, when Officer Kristopher Jackson was dispatched to a Goodyear home after a woman reported that her ex-boyfriend had entered her home, taken her cat and threatened to send partially nude photos of her to her workplace, the report says. Jackson sat with the woman and walked her through questions about protective orders. She told him she did not want a formal report that day because she believed the cat might be returned, and asked whether she could contact him if it was not back by January 8.
The camera goes off, and no report is ever filed
About 23 minutes into the call, the report states, Jackson cleared his throat, reached up and turned off his body camera while the woman was still describing calls and messages from her ex-boyfriend. He did not clear the call for another 40 minutes, and he never filed a report on the visit. The same day, Jackson ran the woman's name through ACJIS, the Arizona criminal justice database, five times, and once more on January 10. Between January 4 and February 8 he searched her license plate 36 times, including 14 times in a single day, with some searches outside his normal working hours. He also looked up the ex-boyfriend's plate several times, according to the report.
A routine audit found the pattern in July
The department's internal affairs unit discovered the pattern in July during a routine audit of Flock activity, which flagged Jackson's queries. Flock cameras photograph and log passing license plates, and every search leaves an audit trail tied to the credentials used. 'When you access the database, it's fairly easy to be able to figure out what credentials, what username, what password was used to get into the database,' said Michael Gennaco, a police practices expert who also serves as an independent auditor for Flock systems. Gennaco added: 'The police department found not only that this officer inappropriately accessed a database and then used it for personal reasons, but that he also lied during the investigation.'
Source: Arizona's Family (KPHO), Nov. 9, 2026
Jackson was placed on administrative leave on July 22 and cut off from department computer systems. Goodyear asked the Glendale Police Department to review whether the conduct was criminal; Glendale investigators determined there was insufficient evidence to establish that a crime was committed, and no criminal charges were filed, including on the allegation that he illegally accessed criminal history records. In an interview with a Glendale detective, Jackson said he checked the woman's plate repeatedly to make sure she was safe, and that he had called her and visited her home to check on her. A forensic examination of his city-issued phone found no calls between the two before January 31, when the woman left him a voicemail saying her cat had been killed. The report also notes that Jackson gave two different explanations for running her name through ACJIS. The woman at the centre of the case was never told, according to the report, that her plate had been searched repeatedly by the officer assigned to her call. Awaaz Punjab is not naming her; she is a domestic violence victim and no source identifies her.
Jackson, who joined the department in October 2023, resigned on September 17 before the administrative investigation was completed. The completed investigation found three violations: abuse of authority, violation of the body-worn camera policy, and dishonesty. Police Chief Brian Issitt said Jackson would have been fired had he remained, and said in a statement that 'accountability does not end when an employee resigns,' stressing the public's trust in how officers handle sensitive information, according to police spokesperson Sgt. Mayra Reeson. The department announced the completion of its investigation in October.
Not an isolated case — in Arizona or in America
The Goodyear case is not the first in Arizona involving misuse of automated license plate readers. In August, an Apache Junction officer resigned after using Flock cameras to track his wife. In Florida, Pinellas County Deputy Ronald Scott was arrested on November 5 over alleged Flock and driver database searches on his estranged wife, a case Awaaz Punjab reported last week. The Institute for Justice, a legal advocacy group, has documented dozens of instances nationwide in which officers used license plate reader systems to track women, including romantic interests. Goodyear residents who spoke to reporters were blunt: 'That's not right at all. Yeah, he should be penalized for that,' said one resident, identified only as Lindsay. 'For somebody to use that, that way, in their own personal, whatever, is just wrong in every sense of the word.'
Why it matters, and what happens next
For domestic violence victims, the report raises a pointed question: whether the camera systems bought to help police solve crimes can instead become tools of surveillance in the hands of the very officer a victim called for help. The audit trail is what caught Jackson — the same logging that records every plate on the road also records every officer who searches it. Goodyear police have not said whether the department has changed its audit practices or training in the wake of the case, and no criminal case is pending against Jackson. What remains open is his law-enforcement certification and whether any other agency hires him — the question that follows officers who resign during an investigation in Arizona and across the United States.