from the the-cops-are-at-it-again dept
Greater than 80 legislation enforcement businesses throughout the USA have used language perpetuating dangerous stereotypes towards Romani individuals when looking out the nationwide Flock Security automated license plate reader (ALPR) community, in keeping with audit logs obtained and analyzed by the Digital Frontier Basis.
When police run a search via the Flock Security community, which hyperlinks 1000’s of ALPR techniques, they’re prompted to go away a cause and/or case quantity for the search. Between June 2024 and October 2025, cops carried out a whole bunch of searches for license plates utilizing phrases reminiscent of “roma” and “g*psy,” and in lots of cases, with none point out of a suspected crime. Different makes use of embody “g*psy car,” “g*psy group,” “attainable g*psy,” “roma traveler” and “g*psy ruse,” perpetuating systemic hurt by demeaning people based mostly on their race or ethnicity.
These queries have been run via 1000’s of police departments’ techniques—and it seems that none of those businesses flagged the searches as inappropriate.
These searches are, by definition, racist.
Phrase Selections and Flock Searches
We’re utilizing the phrases “Roma” and “Romani individuals” as umbrella phrases, recognizing that they characterize completely different however associated teams. Since 2020, the U.S. federal authorities has formally acknowledged “Anti-Roma Racism” as together with behaviors reminiscent of “stereotyping Roma as individuals who interact in felony habits” and utilizing the slur “g*psy.” Based on the U.S. Division of State, this language “results in the remedy of Roma as an alleged alien group and associates them with a sequence of pejorative stereotypes and distorted photos that characterize a particular type of racism.”
However, cops have run a whole bunch of searches for license plates utilizing the phrases “roma” and “g*psy.” (In contrast to the police ALPR queries we’ve uncovered, we substitute an asterisk for the Y to keep away from repeating this racist slur). In lots of instances, these phrases have been used on their very own, with no point out of crime. In different instances, the phrases have been utilized in contexts like “g*psy rip-off” and “roma housebreaking,” when ethnicity shouldn’t have any relevance to how a criminal offense is investigated or prosecuted.
A “g*psy rip-off” and “roma housebreaking” don’t exist in felony legislation separate from some other kind of fraud or housebreaking. A number of businesses contacted by EFF have since acknowledged the inappropriate use and expressed efforts to handle the problem internally.
“Using the time period doesn’t mirror the values or anticipated practices of our division,” a consultant of the Palos Heights (IL) Police Division wrote to EFF after being confronted with two dozen searches involving the time period “g*psy.” “We don’t condone using outdated or offensive terminology, and we’ll take this inquiry as a possibility to coach those that are unaware of the unfavorable connotation and to make sure that investigative notations and search causes are documented in a way that’s correct, skilled, and free of probably dangerous language.”
After all, the broader challenge is that permitting “g*psy” or “Roma” as a cause for a search isn’t simply offensive, it implies the criminalization an ethnic group. The truth is, the Grand Prairie Police Division in Texas looked for “g*psy” six instances whereas utilizing Flock’s “Convoy” characteristic, which permits an company to determine autos touring collectively—in essence focusing on a whole touring neighborhood of Roma with out specifying a criminal offense.
On the backside of this submit is a listing of businesses and the phrases they used when looking out the Flock system.
Anti-Roma Racism in an Age of Surveillance
Racism towards Romani individuals has been an issue for hundreds of years, with one in all its most horrific manifestations in the course of the Holocaust, when the Third Reich and its allies perpetuated genocide by murdering a whole bunch of 1000’s of Romani individuals and sterilizing 1000’s extra. Regardless of efforts by the UN and EU to fight anti-Roma discrimination, this type of racism persists. As students Margareta Matache and Mary T. Bassett clarify, it’s perpetuated by trendy American policing practices:
In recent times, police departments have arrange process forces specialised in “G*psy crimes”, appointed “G*psy crime” detectives, and organised police coaching programs on “G*psy criminality”. The Nationwide Affiliation of Bunco Investigators (NABI), an organisation of legislation enforcement professionals specializing in “non-traditional organised crime”, has even created a database of people arrested or suspected of felony exercise, which clearly marked those that have been Roma.
Thus, it’s no shock {that a} 2020 Harvard College survey of Romani People discovered that 4 out of 10 respondents reported being subjected to racial profiling by police. This demonstrates the continuing challenges they face attributable to systemic racism and biased policing.
Notably, many police businesses utilizing surveillance applied sciences like ALPRs have adopted some form of fundamental coverage towards biased policing or using these techniques to focus on individuals based mostly on race or ethnicity. However even when such insurance policies are in place, an company’s failure to implement them permits these discriminatory practices to persist. These searches have been additionally run via the techniques of 1000’s of different police departments that will have their very own insurance policies and state legal guidelines that prohibit bias-based policing—but none of these businesses appeared to have flagged the searches as inappropriate.
The Flock search information in query right here reveals that surveillance know-how exacerbates racism, and even well-meaning insurance policies to handle bias can shortly collapse with out correct oversight and accountability.
Cops In Their Personal Phrases
EFF reached out to a pattern of the police departments that ran these searches. Listed here are 5 consultant responses we obtained from police departments in Illinois, California, and Virginia. They don’t encourage confidence.
1. Lake County Sheriff’s Workplace, IL
In June 2025, the Lake County Sheriff’s Workplace ran three searches for a darkish coloured pick-up truck, utilizing the rationale: “G*PSY Rip-off.” The search lined 1,233 networks, representing 14,467 completely different ALPR gadgets.
In response to EFF, a sheriff’s consultant wrote by way of e-mail:
“Thanks for reaching out and for bringing this to our consideration. We definitely perceive your concern relating to using that terminology, which we don’t condone or help, and we wish to guarantee you that we’re wanting into the matter.
Any form of discriminatory apply is strictly prohibited at our group. If in case you have the time to check out our dedication to the neighborhood and our robust relationship with the neighborhood, I firmly consider you will note discrimination will not be tolerated and is sort of frankly repudiated by these serving in our group.
We respect you bringing this to our consideration so we are able to look additional into this and handle it.”
2. Sacramento Police Division, CA
In Might 2025, the Sacramento Police Division ran six searches utilizing the time period “g*psy.” The search lined 468 networks, representing 12,885 completely different ALPR gadgets.
In response to EFF, a police consultant wrote:
“Thanks once more for reaching out. We regarded into the searches you talked about and have been in a position to verify the entries. We’ve since reminded the group to be conscious about how they doc investigative causes. The entry mirrored an investigative lead, not a disparaging reference.
We respect the possibility to make clear.”
3. Palos Heights Police Division, IL
In September 2024, the Palos Heights Police Division ran greater than two dozen searches utilizing phrases reminiscent of “g*psy car,” “g*psy rip-off” and “g*psy concrete car.” Most searches hit roughly 1,000 networks.
In response to EFF, a police consultant mentioned the searches have been associated to a singular felony investigation right into a car concerned in a “suspicious circumstance/fraudulent contracting incident” and is “not indicative of a common search based mostly on racial or ethnic profiling.” Nevertheless, the company acknowledged the language was inappropriate:
“Using the time period doesn’t mirror the values or anticipated practices of our division. We don’t condone using outdated or offensive terminology, and we’ll take this inquiry as a possibility to coach those that are unaware of the unfavorable connotation and to make sure that investigative notations and search causes are documented in a way that’s correct, skilled, and free of probably dangerous language.
We respect your outreach on this matter and the chance to supply clarification.”
4. Irvine Police Division, CA
In February and Might 2025, the Irvine Police Division ran eight searches utilizing the time period “roma” within the cause area. The searches lined 1,420 networks, representing 29,364 completely different ALPR gadgets.
In a name with EFF, an IPD consultant defined that the instances have been associated to a sequence of organized thefts. Nevertheless, they acknowledged the problem, saying, “I feel it’s a possibility for our company to take a look at these entries and to make use of a case quantity or use a unique time period.”
5. Fairfax County Police Division, VA
Between December 2024 and April 2025, the Fairfax County Police Division ran greater than 150 searches involving phrases reminiscent of “g*psy case” and “roma crew burglaries.” Fairfax County PD continued to defend its use of this language.
In response to EFF, a police consultant wrote:
“Thanks on your inquiry. When conducting searches in investigative databases, our detectives should use the precise case identifiers, phrases, or names related to a felony investigation to be able to correctly retrieve info. These entries mirror terminology already tied to particular instances and investigative recordsdata from different businesses, not a bias or judgment about any group of individuals. Using such identifiers doesn’t mirror bias or discrimination and isn’t inconsistent with our Bias-Based mostly Policing coverage inside our Human Relations Common Order.”
A Nationwide Development
Roma people and households usually are not the one ones being systematically and discriminatorily focused by ALPR surveillance applied sciences. For instance, Flock audit logs present businesses ran 400 extra searches utilizing phrases focusing on Traveller communities extra typically, with a particular concentrate on Irish Travellers, typically with none point out of a criminal offense.
Throughout the nation, these instruments are enabling and amplifying racial profiling by embedding longstanding policing biases into surveillance applied sciences. For instance, information from Oak Park, IL, present that 84% of drivers stopped in Flock-related visitors incidents have been Black—regardless of Black individuals making up solely 19% of the native inhabitants. ALPR techniques are removed from being impartial instruments for public security and are more and more getting used to gas discriminatory policing practices towards traditionally marginalized individuals.
The racially coded language in Flock’s logs mirrors long-standing patterns of discriminatory policing. Phrases like “furtive actions,” “suspicious habits,” and “excessive crime space” have all the time been cited by police to attempt to justify stops and searches of Black, Latine, and Native communities. These phrases won’t seem in official logs as a result of they’re embedded earlier in enforcement—within the visitors cease with out clear trigger, the undocumented stop-and-frisk, the intelligence bulletin flagging whole neighborhoods as suspect. They perform invisibly till a body-worn digicam, court docket submitting, or audit brings them to mild. Flock’s community didn’t create racial profiling; it industrialized it, turning deeply encoded and obscure language into scalable surveillance that may search 1000’s of cameras throughout state strains.
The Path Ahead
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, just lately beneficial that native governments reevaluate their selections to put in Flock Security of their communities. We agree, however we additionally perceive that typically elected officers have to see the abuse with their very own eyes first.
We all know which businesses ran these racist searches, and they need to be held accountable. However we additionally know that the overwhelming majority of Flock Security’s shoppers—1000’s of police and sheriffs—additionally allowed these racist searches to run via their Flock Security techniques unchallenged.
Elected officers should act decisively to handle the racist policing enabled by Flock’s infrastructure. First, they need to demand a whole audit of all ALPR searches performed of their jurisdiction and a evaluate of search logs to find out (a) whether or not their police businesses participated in discriminatory policing and (b) what safeguards, if any, exist to forestall such abuse. Second, officers ought to institute rapid restrictions on data-sharing via Flock’s nationwide community. As demonstrated by California legislation, for instance, police businesses shouldn’t be in a position to share their ALPR information with federal authorities or out-of-state businesses, thus eliminating a car for discriminatory searches spreading throughout state strains.
In the end, elected officers should terminate Flock Security contracts completely. The proof is now clear: audit logs and inner insurance policies alone can’t forestall a surveillance system from changing into a software for racist policing. The basic structure of Flock—1000’s of cameras feeding right into a nationwide searchable community—makes discrimination inevitable when enforcement mechanisms fail.
As Sen. Wyden astutely defined, “native elected officers can finest shield their constituents from the inevitable abuses of Flock cameras by eradicating Flock from their communities.”
Desk Overview and Notes
The next desk compiles phrases utilized by businesses to explain the explanations for looking out the Flock Security ALPR database. In a small variety of instances, we eliminated extra info reminiscent of case numbers, particular incident particulars, and officers’ names that have been current within the cause area.
We eliminated one company from the listing as a result of company indicating that the phrase was an individual’s identify and never a reference to Romani individuals.
Normally, we didn’t embody searches that used the time period “Romanian,” though lots of these may be indicative of anti-Roma bias. We additionally didn’t embody makes use of of “traveler” or “Traveller” when it didn’t embody a transparent ethnic modifier; nonetheless, we consider lots of these searches are seemingly related.
A text-based model of the spreadsheet is accessible right here.
Initially posted to the EFF’s Deeplinks weblog.
Filed Underneath: alpr, bigotry, police, racism, roma, romani
Firms: flock, flock security
