Waiters facing two felony charges and one misdemeanor count
The Sarasota Police Department has terminated Officer Cory Waiters amid an ongoing internal and criminal investigation about his alleged misuse of law enforcement databases, including 358 searches for a vehicle with a specific license plate, the department announced this week.
Waiters, 38, was put on paid administrative leave on Aug. 7, the agency reported in an Aug. 13 news release.
He was arrested on Aug. 19 on three charges related to what an internal audit had shown were hundreds of searches he had pursued involving a specific Florida license tag, his Probable Cause Affidavit says. Among the charges filed against him are one count of official misconduct, a felony; and one count of violating public records law, a misdemeanor, the Police Department pointed out in an Aug. 19 news release.
An internal investigation began after the agency learned on Aug. 6 that Waiters allegedly had misused the DAVID (Driver and Vehicle Information Database) and the Flock database, the news release said. Flock provides the license plate readers and software that the agency uses as part of its Real-Time Operations Center equipment, Police Department personnel have explained.
Following the launch of the internal investigation, the Aug. 19 release continued, the agency-wide audit was initiated on Friday, Aug. 7, “to ensure agency-wide compliance. The audit was completed on Friday, Aug. 14, the release added, “showing agency-wide compliance.”
“We take allegations of misconduct seriously,” Police Chief Rex Troche said in the release. “When an agency member’s actions fall short of the standards and professionalism we expect, we will address it appropriately and without hesitation,” he added.
Waiters is being held at the Sarasota County Jail, the release pointed out. However, his booking record was not available prior to the deadline for this issue of The Sarasota News Leader.
“Anyone with information on this case or anyone who has any information is asked to call Detective Kim Laster with the Sarasota Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at 941-263-6827,” the release said.
Waiters was among 18 new officers that Chief Troche swore in during a ceremony conducted on Aug. 31, 2023, as the News Leader reported. An agency news release issued at the time said the recruiting class was the Police Department’s largest ever.
Details in the Probable Cause Affidavit
The Probable Cause Affidavit for Waiters explains that, on Aug. 6, the Police Department’s Public Information Office received an email from a USA Today reporter, Jack Lemnus, which said, “Publicly available Flock Safety audit logs include approximately 335 queries associated with Officer Cory H. Waiters’ account involving the same license plate [number] between [May 20, 2025 and July 16, 2025]. The stated justification for all of these queries is simply 13V,” meaning suspicious vehicle, the reporter adds.
The license plate is registered to a 2025 Land Rover, the affidavit continues, without identifying the owner. “The tag had previously been registered to a gray 2016 Infiniti SUV,” it adds, with the indication that the Infiniti was owned by the same individual as the person to whom the Land Rover is registered. Parts of the affidavit were redacted.
An internal audit of Waiters’ use of the DAVID database and Flock was conducted, the affidavit says.
The DAVID system was audited with the date range from May 1, 2025 through Aug. 7 of this year, the affidavit notes.
The affidavit includes images detailing the dates and times of Waiters’ searches, explaining, “When a law enforcement officer logs into DAVID, [he or she] must acknowledge the DAVID Usage Warning, which states: ‘All data contained within the DAVID system is sensitive and privileged information and shall be handled accordingly. To maintain the integrity of this information, the records will be accorded proper management and security, and will only be accessed and used by authorized personnel in accordance with state and federal law.’ ”
The warning further points out, “Unauthorized use includes, but is not limited to, queries not related to a legitimate business purpose, personal use, dissemination, sharing, copying or passing of DAVID information to unauthorized users and could result in civil proceedings against the offending agency and/or criminal proceedings against any user or other person involved.”
Next the affidavit includes results of the audit involving Waiters’ use of the Flock system from Aug. 24, 2023 through July 28 of this year. That audit found that the license plate referenced earlier in the affidavit had been searched 121 times just on June 12, 2025, the affidavit says.
However, the affidavit points out, from February 2025 through September 2025, “Waiters was not actively working on any criminal investigation involving [vehicles with that license tag].”
Further, the affidavit notes, between May 14, 2025 and Oct. 4, 2025, the audit found that “the predominate type of Search Type [was] ‘lookup/search — Mobile.’ ”