Pinellas County, Florida: Former Deputy Arrested After More Than 100 Flock Searches of His Estranged Wife

A former Pinellas County sheriff's deputy was arrested on Thursday morning after investigators said he unlawfully accessed law enforcement databases more than 100 times to track his estranged wife. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced the arrest of Ronald Scott, 35, at a Thursday afternoon press conference in Largo.

Scott resigned on Wednesday, Nov. 4, one day before his arrest. He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on three counts of accessing a computer or electronic device without authority and one count of official misconduct. His bail was set at $20,000, FOX 13 Tampa reported. Scott had worked for the agency for about ten and a half years, hired on Feb. 8, 2016.

What investigators say the searches covered

The sheriff's office said an audit found more than 100 unlawful accesses between Feb. 14 and June 19, 2026. Scott allegedly used the Flock automatic license plate reader database and other state databases to obtain information about his estranged wife, her boyfriend, the boyfriend's wife and his wife's father, according to FOX 13 Tampa. Many queries ran while Scott was off duty, and investigators said he gave false reasons for them, presenting them as law enforcement inquiries.

The first misuse began on Valentine's Day, Gualtieri said. "Scott made these queries to learn the locations that his wife and her boyfriend had traveled to or to identify their vehicles and obtain other private information," Gualtieri said, in remarks reported by WMNF. According to Spectrum Bay News 9, as reported by the Clearwater Sentinel, Gualtieri said the searches largely stopped after Scott's divorce was finalized, and he suggested personal emotions during the divorce may have motivated the alleged conduct. The allegations have not been adjudicated, and an arrest does not establish guilt.

Caught by a new audit tool

Gualtieri said the misuse surfaced because Flock released a new auditing tool, more comprehensive than the audits his agency used before. The sheriff's office said it has completed its historical audits with the enhanced tool and is confident this is the last historical case of plate reader misuse in the agency. Scott is the third Pinellas deputy arrested in recent months over alleged misuse of restricted databases, the Clearwater Sentinel reported.

An earlier case ended without a prosecution. A previous audit, prompted by an inquiry from a TCPalm reporter, led to the arrest of former Deputy Karl Gwynne, who allegedly searched the system about 300 times for a love interest. Pinellas Pasco State Attorney Bruce Bartlett declined to prosecute Gwynne in an Oct. 29 filing, writing that current Florida law does not address the conduct and that his office will ask the legislature to correct it. Gualtieri said he is confident prosecutors have enough to proceed against Scott. Scott also had an older mark on his record: in 2019 he was reprimanded for being intoxicated and creating a public disturbance at an establishment, WMNF reported.

A wider fight over plate readers

The arrest lands in a county and state argument over the cameras. Pinellas County commissioners recently declined to vote on removing license plate readers from county roadways and chose to wait for the state legislature to regulate them, WMNF reported. Gualtieri, who leads a nationwide campaign for the readers, told reporters the technology is not the problem. St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway has also told his city council that a former officer of his could face criminal charges for plate reader misuse, WMNF reported.