A former Fort Lauderdale Police officer who was often the face of the department is facing federal charges more than a year after allegations surfaced that he placed a GPS tracker on his ex-girlfriend’s car.

Henry Lockwood III, whose last assignment was in the recruiting department, was terminated earlier this year after an internal investigation. A federal criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Dec. 9. While a Fort Lauderdale officer, he was well-known and helped lead efforts to connect with young Spring Breakers, mentored children and appeared on national television to speak about the police force.

Lockwood faces charges of stalking, related to his use of GPS trackers to allegedly surveil his ex-girlfriend; fraud and related activity in connection with computers; and one count of wire fraud, according to the complaint.

“We’re aware of the charges, and we plan to respond to them at the appropriate time in court,” defense attorney Sam Rabin told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday.

GPS trackers

Lockwood and the woman he is accused of stalking had dated for about two years, before the relationship ended at her request in April 2024, according to the criminal complaint.

Lockwood purchased two trackers from BrickHouse Security in 2023. The histories for the trackers showed they were at or near the woman’s home on at least 21 different dates between July and August 2024 and at or near her work on at least 15 dates between June and August 2024, the complaint said. Lockwood logged onto his account with the tracker company 399 times between July 2024 and January 2025.

On a night months after their relationship ended, Lockwood and a person identified in the complaint only as “Brother 1” had been hanging out together, and the ex-girlfriend rejected their offer to meet up, according to the complaint. But they showed up to a lounge in Hollywood where the woman was even though she didn’t tell them her location.

A few days later, the woman took her car to a shop in Coconut Creek and asked for it to be inspected for any tracking device. A mechanic found one placed near the back of the car, the complaint said. She filed a police report after the discovery.

Lockwood arrived at the mechanic shop a few hours later that same day while on duty as a Fort Lauderdale officer, according to the complaint. CCTV footage showed Lockwood walking into an employee-only area up to the woman’s car and was seen leaving with the tracker.

Well-known Fort Lauderdale detective fired after investigation

Unauthorized database searches

In April 2024, the same month the two broke up, Lockwood searched the license plate number of two different cars his ex-girlfriend previously owned years earlier in the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles and Highway Safety Driver and Vehicle Information Database, known as DAVID, the complaint said. The new owners of both cars, one who lives outside of Florida, told investigators they didn’t know Lockwood and never authorized having their plates searched.

About a week later, Lockwood searched the license plate, driver’s license number, name and vehicle’s VIN belonging to another person who is not identified in the complaint. That person also did not know Lockwood and lives over 200 miles away from Fort Lauderdale, the complaint said.

$150,000 for personal expenses

Lockwood served as the treasurer for the Fort Lauderdale Black Police Officers Association, a nonprofit organization of officers and civilians, the complaint said, and was one of the authorized signers of the organization’s Wells Fargo account.

A payroll specialist for the city began asking the organization’s president in April 2025 about two overpayments totaling more than $56,000 that the city made more than a year earlier, in January 2024. The city employee had communicated with Lockwood over email for months in early 2024 about the overpayments, and he claimed to have mailed two checks to reimburse the city, though the checks the city received had been marked with a stop payment, the complaint said.

The organization’s president tried throughout 2024 to be added as an authorized signer to the bank account, but Lockwood “consistently appeared to avoid the efforts,” the complaint said. Lockwood briefed members of the group on finances during monthly meetings but did not share actual bank statements and instead showed “spreadsheets with summaries of the account that he created himself.”

Lockwood eventually in early 2025 gave the president an envelope of documents, including Wells Fargo bank statements from 2024, and “many inconsistencies” were found once records were compared, including subpoenaed business records, according to the complaint.

Investigators discovered that Lockwood had misappropriated funds from the organization dating back to 2023, including more than $60,000 used to pay two credit card accounts, about $17,000 transferred to a personal business owned by Lockwood and nearly $10,000 to pay a creditors’ rights law firm on his behalf, the complaint said.

Lockwood also allegedly used the organization’s account to make purchases at liquor stores, groomers, pharmacies and “companies that sell GPS devices, on multiple occasions spanning multiple years,” according to the complaint. In total, investigators discovered about $150,000 worth of funds used for Lockwood’s personal expenses, “which he knowingly took steps to conceal.”

His first appearance was held on Friday, and an arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 5 in Fort Lauderdale, federal court records show. One condition of his release after posting bail includes being subject to GPS monitoring.