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…