Florida Troopers tapped surveillance network for immigration search and issued an alarm

To help Sunigration Chrockdowns, the Florida Highway Patrol performed hundreds of searches of license plates scanned by cameras controlled by the safety of a flock of controversial surveillance companies.

The logs show that between March 13th and May 5th, State Troopers conducted over 250 immigration-related searches using Flock’s automatic license plate reader system. These searches spiked in the weeks before and after the tide waves, a well-known sweep coordinated by federal and state agencies that led to more than 1,100 arrests in Florida.

More than 100 law enforcement agencies in Florida use herds, according to search logs that include the Desoto and Manatee Sheriff’s offices and police stations in Sarasota and Venice. However, it appears to have been running immigration-related searches over the past few months. Of these, Florida Highway Patrol is the most frequent. (Read how the Suncoast Searchlight team found, analyzed and verified the data here.)

The practice has sparked concerns from civil rights advocates, who warn of the use of surveillance technology to help deport the country into immigrant communities. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials say adding more responsibility to an already growing workforce will separate troopers from their core mission of ensuring road safety.

Speaking about the findings of Suncoast Searchlight, Ruth Bertrand, community organizer for the Tampa Bay Immigration Solidarity Network, said:

The law enforcement database, obtained by researchers through a request for public records and first reported by 404 Media, shows that Highway Patrol was performed that performed searches tagged with phrases such as “ICE”, “ICE Control Warrant”, “Imigrant Overstay”, “Ice Support”, and “Imigration Survey”.

A 404 Media report found that local and state police across the country conducted these types of searches “at federal request or as a “unofficial” benefit to federal law enforcement.”

License Plate Camera automatically scans and captures license plate details of passing vehicles. Create a record of the location at a specific time. This can be used by law enforcement in investigations. For example, in hit and run, officers can search the software to learn where the problematic vehicle drives regularly, and then go to those locations to catch the driver.

It is unclear whether information will be shared directly with federal agents during the immigration investigation stage, when highway patrol troopers are using herds. Auto license plate readers store information in the car rather than people, but Flock has launched products that link vehicles to drivers and extend cameras that link drivers to a wider network.

The Flock Safety website promotes technology as an innovative tool for fighting crime and cites “checks and balances to ensure the ethical use of our technology.” Its own website says it bans tools used to enforce immigration, even among prohibited purposes.

However, the company has accumulated an unusually large, centralized data on drivers around the country, and civil rights and privacy experts have been warning about the company for years. In 2022, the ACLU warned in a paper that the technology could be used to enforce abuse or immigration.

“If law enforcement is engaged in such mass surveillance, that’s bad enough, but flowing such data through private companies is creating additional incentives for abuse,” warned ACLU researcher Jay Stanley.

Denver’s city council voted last month not to extend its contract with Flock. Its cameras are feared to be used to seduce and deport immigrants without permanent legal status in the community.

The promotion of local immigration enforcement has raised individual concerns within law enforcement itself.

Spencer Ross of Florida Highway Patrol Brothers Police Order said troopers are already understaffed and adding more duties would cost public safety.

“Every time someone leaves the road to do something special, whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be an immigrant — it reduces the number of people there to fulfill our main duties,” Ross said.

The Florida Highway Patrol did not respond to multiple calls or emails from Suncoast Searchlight, which are seeking interviews in May and June. Flock Safety also did not answer any questions about how Highway Patrol used the database.

How Troopers Use Herds to Support Immigrant Repression

When performing a swarm search, officers usually enter the reason for the query. Other details such as agent, officer names, and search times are also captured.

According to records reviewed by Suncoast Searchlight, State Troopers are regularly tagged searches with keywords such as “criminal investigation,” “flight,” “stolen vehicle,” and “crash.” But in recent months, they have increasingly cited immigration-related conditions.

The shift coincides with statewide crackdowns on immigration that began after Congress passed two drastic immigration enforcement laws in February.

Governor Ron DeSantis, who threatened to reject previous bills that cut his power over immigration enforcement, leaned heavily towards highway patrols to support mass arrest operations.

“At last month’s press conference, DeSantis said, “No one law enforcement agency has been deeply gained in this fight.”

Although there is no contract with Flock for US immigration customs enforcement, Florida law enforcement agencies that use Flocks, including Highway Patrol, have signed an agreement with ICE, which can help immigration enforcement.

According to a Searchlight analysis, nine months before March, Highway Patrol did not conduct immigration-related searches with herds.

However, from mid-March to early May, troopers conducted approximately 32 immigration-related herd searches per week. According to a news release from Desantis’ office, about 40% of individuals arrested during the sweeps had no criminal history. This is a statistic that warns immigration rights advocates.

Other law enforcement agencies in the state appear to have been running immigration-related searches over the past year. Officers from Lake, Putnam, Volsia, Bay and Miami-Dade counties each performed less than a dozen, in addition to “immigration” and “ice” using keywords such as “border patrol” and “CBP.”

“We’re talking about disproportionate behaviours that are punished by people for what needs to be addressed within the immigration system,” Renata Bosette, deputy director of the Florida Immigration Union, said in an interview with Suncoast Searchlight. “I think it’s very important to understand the people who are targeting these practices. …We’re talking about neighbours working, neighbours driving to grocery stores, dropping their kids off at school.”

Beltran, organizer of the Tampa Bay Immigration Solidarity Network, told Suncoast’s Searchlight that her group was being called daily from the families of migrants who were drawn to state troopers and subsequently detained by federal agents.

New responsibility adds pressure to the limited ranks of highway patrols

While not all troopers fulfill their immigration enforcement duties every day, additional liability can reduce the capacity of traffic control, a core mission of highway patrols.

It affects all Florida residents.

In an interview, President Ross, the Florida Highway Patrol’s Brothers Police Order, rattled out the live phone hours waiting for troopers in the Orlando area where he is based. Some of the waiting calls included crashes, including injuries.

3 hours 48 minutes. 4 hours 14 minutes. 2 hours 50 minutes.

When the troopers are tied to other challenges, it doesn’t just slow response times, Ross said. It helps to calm young drivers at the accident scene or reduces the care they can give to each task, such as family members waiting with older drivers to pick them up after a crash.

“Unfortunately, there’s no luxury to do that,” he said. “The quality of the service we provide is not that good.”

Tensions are strengthened under Desantis’ deportation, but the underlying issues are nothing new. Despite the state’s population boom, the number of troopers on the roads has remained roughly flat for decades, with salaries not rising in response to increased demand, according to Ross.

It is unclear whether immigration enforcement has affected the frequency with which highway patrols use herds for other purposes. Over the past year, troopers have given hundreds of different reasons for searching for similar phrases in many variations. They most commonly cited criminal investigations.

Sarasota County Commissioner Tom Knight, Tom Knight, served as Highway Patrol for 20 years and later as Sarasota County Sheriff, said it is normal for the government to change with the political winds.

“Under the leadership of different governors, their roles and responsibilities, and their range of roles and responsibilities have expanded and they sign fairly regularly,” Knight said of his time on the Highway Patrol.

Changes or widening agency obligations could put a burden on local law enforcement agencies to fill the gap, he said, adding that “it will bring additional responsibility to local jurisdictions, particularly to the sheriff’s office.”

Bosette, deputy director of the Florida Immigration Coalition, reflected concerns that immigration enforcement would draw law enforcement from public safety missions.

She warned law enforcement “from distracting attention from public safety, allowing people to seek real criminals, terrorize their communities and tear people apart.”

The story was originally published by Suncoast Searchlight, a non-profit newsroom that provides investigative journalism to Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. For more information, please visit suncoastsearchlight.org.