Bob Gualtieri calls Flock critics ‘wrong’ as third Pinellas deputy faces charges for database misuse

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri pushed back against critics of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) while announcing the arrest of a third Deputy accused of improperly accessing law enforcement databases for personal reasons. Former Deputy Ronald Scott, 35, allegedly used the Flock surveillance system and several other restricted databases more than 100 times to obtain information about “his wife, her boyfriend, her boyfriend s wife and his wife s father,” Gualtieri said. “To the best of our knowledge, Deputy Scott and his wife, and her boyfriend and his wife, were all legally married while this was occurring, but they were separated and in the process of obtaining their respective divorces,” Gualtieri said. Gualtieri said the queries ran for about four months and stopped soon after the divorce was finalized. The arrest follows two similar cases involving former Pinellas Deputies in September, which exposed shortcomings in the Sheriff s Office s auditing practices and intensif