Samuel Earman already had an arrest record for stalking women with police databases.
That happened in November 2025 – when Sheriff Eric Flowers fired the 10-year Indian River County deputy and told the public his son had tarnished the badge.
And a Florida sheriff arrested his own deputies after finding one had stalked women for three years.
The Commissioner's Boy
Samuel Earman is the son of Indian River County Commissioner Joseph Earman.
He had his government-issued access to law enforcement databases revoked.
He faced felony charges.
Between 10 and 12 more women came forward after that November arrest – all reporting what Flowers described as unusual circumstances that pointed to stalking.
In May 2026, prosecutors added another count of unauthorized computer use tied to one of those women.
And now, after a department-wide Flock Safety audit launched in August 2026, Earman is back in handcuffs.
Investigators found he had run more than 200 unauthorized searches – targeting three women the department had never known about – spanning years the audit was only now uncovering.
He allegedly ran those searches across four separate law enforcement systems simultaneously: Flock, DAVID, FCIC/NCIC, and LERMS.
"At this point, it appears that Sam was using just about all of our systems that we have access to for improper searches," Flowers said.
Earman now faces four new felony counts.
His bond: $160,000.
A man who was already arrested for using police databases to stalk women – already fired, already facing felony charges – had been running illegal searches on women for years.
https://twitter.com/AnnieDelBel/status/2117496640386859244?a=ltWzdWoa2OIiRhQmzS0&s=20
The badge didn't stop him.
The family name didn't stop him.
Only an audit caught him.
Finnegan's 900 Searches
The same morning Earman turned himself in, a second arrest happened.
Sgt. John Finnegan – a 19-year department veteran, most recently working as a school resource officer – was charged with one felony count of unauthorized computer use.
The investigation started when a reporter tipped off the sheriff's office about Finnegan's Flock activity.
What they found: more than 900 license plate searches over a nearly two-year span.
Flowers confronted Finnegan directly.
Finnegan admitted to every search and cooperated with detectives.
He resigned Sunday, turned himself in Monday morning, and walked out on a $10,000 bond by noon.
Flowers said Finnegan's searches involved "people he's having relationships with" – and that Finnegan told investigators he tracked his wife's ex-husband because he believed the man was stalking him and making death threats.
That's his defense.
900 searches.
Why This Sheriff Matters
Most law enforcement agencies would have buried an audit that turned up results like these.
Flowers didn't.
He launched the Flock audit himself in August.
He publicly credited the reporter – TCPalm's Jack Lemnus – who first flagged Finnegan's searches by name.
He announced both arrests at a press conference, stood at the podium, and said what needed to be said.
"It's always a sad day when we have to report that that trust has been violated, when we have to arrest one of our own. Today, we arrested two."
He's committing to quarterly audits going forward.
That accountability matters because the alternative is what's been happening everywhere else.
Nationwide, at least 50 law enforcement officers have been accused of or charged with misusing license plate reader systems – and the pattern is almost always the same: government-issued access to surveillance technology, used to track women in their personal lives.
In Georgia, cascading audits triggered a wave of firings and arrests across multiple departments.
In Wisconsin, a Kenosha County deputy was charged with felony misconduct for using Flock to track a coworker.
In Massachusetts, three separate cases emerged in a single week.
The Institute for Justice says its database of documented incidents is almost certainly an undercount.
Here's what makes the Earman case different from every other name on that list.
He wasn't some rogue cop who slipped through the cracks.
He was arrested.
He was fired.
He was publicly identified as the commissioner's son who tarnished the badge.
And an audit covering years of his database activity just revealed how much had gone undetected the entire time.
His dad is still a county commissioner.
Sources:
- Grace Bellinghausen and Antoinette DelBel, "Two former IRC deputies face felony charges in Flock misuse investigation," CBS12, November 2, 2026.
- Nick Samuel, "Two IRC deputies arrested after Flock misuse," TCPalm, November 2, 2026.
- WFLX, "Indian River County sheriff's deputy Sam Earman, son of county commissioner Joe Earman, arrested," WFLX, November 17, 2025.
- WQCS, "Deputy fired, arrested on stalking charges in Indian River County," WQCS, November 18, 2025.
- Newsweek, "Police officers in at least 12 states have faced allegations of misusing Flock Safety," Newsweek, 2026.
- Washington Post investigation cited in multiple outlets, "At least 50 officers nationwide accused of or charged with misusing license-plate reader systems," 2026.
