The last major assignment in a decades-long career with the San Diego Police Department had Capt. Jeff Jordon overseeing the city’s use of surveillance technology to help fight crime.

As a captain in charge of special projects and legislative affairs, Jordon was the department’s point person for implementing the so-called smart streetlights — a network of cameras across the city that record cars as they pass by.

Before he retired from the San Diego Police Department in April, when Mayor Todd Gloria declared the occasion Jeffrey Jordon Day, the outgoing captain helped select Flock Safety to run the city’s multimillion-dollar surveillance system.

Within three months of leaving public service, Jordon was hired by Flock Safety to help it win even more police contracts.

As the company’s strategic relations manager, Jordon is “committed to facilitating the growth of Flock Safety and enhancing community safety by utilizing technology to support law enforcement agencies in solving more crime,” his LinkedIn profile says.

Flock Safety was awarded a $3.5 million city contract in December 2023, in part on Jordon’s research and recommendation. Late last year, the city approved another nearly $1.5 million for services through calendar year 2025.

Jordon did not respond to multiple requests for comment on his new job.

The San Diego Police Department said in a statement that there are rules governing how former city employees can engage with their new employer and the city in their new roles, particularly if they have previously interacted with company officials.

“It is their responsibility to understand these rules and comply with them,” spokesperson Ashley Nicholes said by email. “The department also ensures that we follow any guidelines for engagement with the former employer as it relates to their new employer.”

Bryn Kirvin, executive director of the San Diego Ethics Commission, said city employees are not allowed to use their positions to influence a decision that involves the interests of a person with whom they or an immediate family member are seeking or negotiating a future job.

“The prohibition does not prevent employees from seeking future employment; it just requires them to recuse themselves from matters that involve their prospective employer’s interests,” she said by email.

San Diego ethics rules also prohibit former employees from lobbying the city for one year after leaving — a “cooling off” period. But Jordon does not appear to be lobbying current city officials, based on recent disclosures.

Nonetheless, the arrangement has bothered some good-government activists, who say too many public officials accept paid positions with companies they formerly worked with as government employees.

“It may not be illegal, but there is no way for us to know if these officers are being paid,” said Seth Hall, a co-founder of the San Diego Privacy community group that has fought to revoke the Flock Safety contract.

“It makes me wonder about the people who are now in front of the City Council making the argument for Flock,” he added. “I am not getting a lot of pro-con analysis. They are making a full-throated pitch for Flock.”

Flock Safety, which has been fighting multiple lawsuits alleging its technology violates constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, has a record of paying public officials in jurisdictions where they do business.

According to a July deposition from a police captain in Norfolk, Va., where Flock Safety technology is being challenged in federal court, the company paid multiple department employees when its equipment was installed.

“They wanted police officers there with the installer,” Norfolk police Capt. Charles Thomas said in a deposition filed in a Virginia court. “So I along with several other police officers worked for them as, I guess you would say, a private contractor.”

Nicholes, the San Diego police spokesperson, said no city employees had been paid by Flock to install its cameras here.

There is no public record of Jordon accepting any payments from Flock Safety before he was hired by the technology firm.

According to his most recent statements of economic interest, the only outside income Jordon received was from a rental property he owns and from teaching classes at the University of San Diego.