Sussex Navy Veteran Says Waukesha County Deputies Flocked His Plate 100 Times After Complaint

A Sussex man's federal lawsuit against the Waukesha County Sheriff's Office has expanded to accuse three additional command staff of misusing a license plate camera database to track his vehicle after he filed a complaint against the deputy who arrested him. Napoleon Jones, a U.S. Navy veteran, says his license plate was searched in the department's Flock Safety system more than 100 times following a May 4, 2025 traffic stop that sheriff's officials themselves later determined was not legal.

Jones was pulled over by Deputy Brandon Shayhorn in Sussex after the deputy said he could not read Jones' temporary tag, according to TMJ4 News. Jones refused to hand over his driver's license and was arrested; he was held for five hours before being released without citations or criminal charges. An internal department report completed after the arrest concluded Shayhorn had been advised the stop was not legal because it happened in a private business parking lot, according to Atlanta Black Star.

Jones filed a citizen complaint against Shayhorn over the arrest. The station's report states that Shayhorn later told investigators he was ordered by Lt. Cory Farrell to run Flock searches on Jones' vehicle, and that those searches concerned the citizen complaint. Captain Lisa Panas, who also conducted Flock searches for Jones' vehicle, said her queries were related to the internal investigation, though she told investigators she did not know why Shayhorn was involved in reviewing a complaint filed against himself. Panas also said deputies normally do not participate in investigations of complaints filed against them, per the same account.

A Traffic Camera Two Miles Away

Among the searches cited in the case, one Flock camera captured an image of Jones' white BMW three weeks after the traffic stop, at a location two miles from the parking lot where he was arrested. The amended complaint alleges Jones was tracked in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment right to record the stop on his cell phone, the outlet reports. Department policy is supposed to prohibit personnel from using Flock data except for legitimate law enforcement purposes, according to the same reporting.

Attorney Nate Cade, representing Jones, said the deputy under internal investigation — Shayhorn — was the one tasked with searching the complainant's vehicle in the Flock system, an arrangement the lawsuit frames as evidence of retaliation rather than routine police work. Jones, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, stated in court filings that the encounter and forced arrest triggered severe psychological distress requiring psychiatric intervention, according to Atlanta Black Star. Jones says he wants everyone involved held accountable.

Case Grows to Include More Command Staff

The lawsuit, Jones v. Shayhorn et al., was originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on December 1, 2025. An amended complaint filed on July 31 added Panas, Farrell, and Deputy Jarrett Scheelk as co-defendants, according to court records reviewed by PacerMonitor. Farrell has declined to comment and, as of the station's reporting, had not testified in the civil case. The Waukesha County Sheriff's union and a sheriff's office spokesperson both declined interview requests, citing the pending federal litigation, and the Waukesha County executive's office likewise declined to comment for the same reason. Flock Safety has not responded to interview requests regarding the allegations, per TMJ4's reporting.

Jones' First Amendment claim rests in part on a well-established precedent in the region: the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Wisconsin, ruled in ACLU v. Alvarez that openly recording police performing public duties in public places is constitutionally protected, according to the ACLU of Illinois. Jones had recorded the traffic stop on his cell phone before he was pulled from his vehicle.

No Cameras to Show What Happened

There is no official video from the deputies' side of the encounter, because the Waukesha County Sheriff's Office was, as of prior reporting, the last major law enforcement agency in southeastern Wisconsin without body-worn or dashboard cameras. Hoodline has previously reported that the department plans to equip patrol deputies with body cameras by January 1, 2027, under a program expected to cost under $500,000 pending county board approval later this year.

The department's technology practices, including access to Flock license plate readers, became a central issue in this month's Republican primary for Waukesha County Sheriff, where candidates debated transparency and oversight standards for department databases, according to Wisconsin Right Now. Captain Nick Ollinger won that primary with 65% of the vote and runs unopposed in November to succeed retiring Sheriff Eric Severson, meaning the incoming sheriff — who previously led the department's body camera planning group — will inherit both the pending lawsuit and the surveillance policy questions it has raised.

Part of a Bigger National Pattern

Jones' allegations echo a broader problem playing out nationally. An August investigation found at least 50 law enforcement personnel across the country accused or charged with misusing automated license plate readers, with 46 of those cases involving Flock Safety equipment specifically, more than half tied to tracking romantic partners or other personal targets. Flock Safety rolled out an automated audit tool in mid-2026 designed to flag irregular search patterns, a shift that has already prompted internal audits, terminations, and criminal referrals against officers in multiple states for running non-official queries.

Wisconsin has not been immune to the fallout: Sheboygan recently pulled all 15 of its Flock cameras and moved to cancel its contract entirely over what officials described as a breach of public trust. Whether the Waukesha County case results in similar scrutiny of its own Flock program may depend on how the federal lawsuit against Shayhorn, Panas, Farrell, and Scheelk proceeds in the months ahead.