WAUKESHA COUNTY — A Sussex man says what began with him recording a traffic stop on his cell phone ended with sheriff's deputies repeatedly searching his license plate in a surveillance database — after he filed a citizen complaint against one of them. Napoleon Jones is now suing the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office in federal court.
Court records reveal a sheriff's lieutenant authorized searches of Jones' license plate in the department's Flock Safety database. Jones' attorney calls it a second form of retaliation.
WATCH: Waukesha County man gets 'Flocked' by sheriff’s dept. after filing complaint against deputy
Jones began recording in May 2025 when he questioned why a deputy in a Lisbon squad car pulled someone over in Sussex. After Jones walked back to his car, parked in a private lot, the same deputy pulled up behind him.
That deputy, Brandon Shayhorn of the Waukesha County Sheriff's Office, told Jones he was being stopped because his temporary tag was unreadable. The department is contracted to provide law enforcement services in Sussex and Lisbon.
Jones refused to hand over his driver's license, insisting he could not be pulled over on private property.
"It just elevated from there, and escalation happened, and he pulled me out, and he had another deputy arrive, and they placed me under arrest, put me in the handcuffs and put me in the back of the squad car," Jones said.
After Jones sat in jail for five hours, sheriff's office records show he was released without any citations or criminal charges. Internal documents also state "Deputy Shayhorn was advised that this was not a legal traffic stop as the parking lot was for a private business."
Jones immediately filed a citizen complaint with the sheriff's office alleging he was "arrested without probable cause."
A picture included in the sheriff's response to that complaint caught the attention of Jones' attorney, Nate Cade.
"In the packet was a single photograph of Napoleon's white vehicle, a white BMW. The incident occurred on May 4, so that starts me thinking, what's going on? Why do you have a photograph of his vehicle 25 days later?" Cade said.
The image came from a Flock license plate reading camera — captured three weeks after the traffic stop and two miles from the parking lot where Jones was arrested.
"It turns out that deputy was one of the ones doing the Flock searching. So the very person who's being investigated was tasked with searching for the complaining person's vehicle on Flock," Cade said.
A review of records shows several department members searched Jones' license plate more than 100 times.
"I was shocked, to be honest. I was extremely shocked. I couldn't understand why or how that would even be a possibility from what happened at the beginning of May would lead me to be searched in the Flock system because from my understanding, it's for criminal stuff," Jones said.
The sheriff's department's Flock use policy states: "Department personnel are prohibited from using Flock provided data except for legitimate law enforcement purposes."
The Flock searches for Jones’ vehicle are now part of an amended federal lawsuit alleging that Jones "was being tracked in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment right."
In deposition testimony, Shayhorn said he was ordered to conduct the searches by Lt. Farrell.
"I was ordered by Lt. Farrell to conduct this search," Shayhorn said. "This has to do with the citizen complaint and whether or not they could either sustain or not sustain the complaint. You'd have to ask Lt. Farrell why he wanted that done."
The Flock audit shows Shayhorn was not the only one searching for Jones' car in the database. Captain Lisa Panas said under oath that she conducted searches as well.
"Anytime I searched for his vehicle on Flock, it was pertaining to the internal investigation," Panas said.
Panas echoed Shayhorn's stated reason for the searches — to obtain a photo showing Jones' temporary registration was improperly displayed. But when asked why Shayhorn, the subject of the complaint, was directed to conduct Flock searches, Panas said she did not have an answer.
"When you have a citizen's complaint against a deputy, do you normally allow that deputy to participate in the investigation?" Panas was asked. "No," she replied.
When asked why Shayhorn was directed to do Flock searches for Jones' vehicle by Lt. Farrell, Panas said, "I don't know why Deputy Shayhorn would be involved in the investigation into a citizen complaint."
Cade says Lt. Cory Farrell has not yet testified in the civil case. Farrell declined to comment when Investigative Reporter Ben Jordan called.
"Does the sheriff even know that this has taken place? Has he signed off on it?" Cade said.
TMJ4 reached out to the Waukesha County Sheriff to request an interview. A spokesperson declined to comment due to the pending lawsuit.
The Waukesha County Sheriff's Union and the Waukesha County Executive also declined interview requests because of the federal litigation.
Jones says he hopes the case leads to accountability.
"I would definitely like them to be held accountable and to even show some kind of acceptance of it and to at least say, yeah, we were wrong," Jones said.
Flock Safety has not yet responded to TMJ4’s interview requests regarding the allegations in the lawsuit.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
