{"id":396073,"date":"2026-09-10T18:22:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396073\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:22:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:22:56","slug":"former-fort-pierce-officer-accused-of-database-misuse-due-in-court-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396073\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Fort Pierce officer accused of database misuse due in court Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A former Fort Pierce police officer accused of misusing law enforcement databases to track his ex-girlfriend is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Former Fort Pierce officer accused of database misuse due in court Wednesday. CBS12’s Paige Meyer reports.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Police say Josepher Crutchfield searched his ex-girlfriend\u2019s vehicle in the department\u2019s Flock license plate reader system 382 times between October 2025 and July 2026 without a legitimate law enforcement reason.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Fort Pierce officer accused of database misuse due in court Wednesday. (FPPD)<\/p>\n

Investigators say Crutchfield also used other police databases to search for personal information. He was placed on administrative leave in August and later resigned from the department.<\/p>\n

Crutchfield now faces four felony charges related to unauthorized computer access. He was being held at the St. Lucie County Jail on $80,000 secured bond.<\/p>\n

Fort Pierce police have since tightened access to the Flock system and started a broader audit of department databases.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Fort Pierce officer accused of database misuse due in court Wednesday. (FPPD)<\/p>\n

Now, the chief says a departmentwide audit is underway, and so far, no other violations have been found.<\/p>\n

CBS12 News will be following Crutchfield\u2019s first appearance and will bring you updates from court.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A former Fort Pierce police officer accused of misusing law enforcement databases to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-396073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}