CHARLOTTE — Court documents say a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer looked up an undercover officer’s license plate information and provided it to the subject of a drug investigation. Wednesday, the SBI arrested CMPD Officer Seth Elliott and charged him with a misdemeanor for improperly using Flock and the state’s CJLEADS system. That system is a centralized database of criminal offenders, and it’s for law enforcement use only.
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According to the affidavit, on June 16, the subject of a Watauga County Sheriff’s Office drug investigation contacted Elliott and asked if Elliott could query the license plate registration that was affixed to an undercover officer’s vehicle. Court documents say Elliott ran the information through Flock and the CJLEADS system and provided it to the person under investigation.
Channel 9 has learned an alleged drug dealer was suspicious of a buyer and asked Elliott to run the buyer’s plate through the databases. The affidavit says Elliott did so, and it came back as an undercover officer, and he provided that information to the alleged dealer.
The target was under investigation by the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office.
Elliott has been an officer with CMPD since 2024 and is now on unpaid administrative leave.
CMPD Chief Estella Patterson released a statement after the arrest, saying that misusing law enforcement technology is a breach of the public’s trust.
This is a developing story. Watch Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. for updates.