Shively officer’s Flock camera case reflects pattern of officers misusing surveillance tech to track women, expert says

In news that every woman could have predicted.

Asad Zahir, 40, faces five counts of first-degree official misconduct and five counts of fourth-degree unlawful access to a computer.

Okay. Where's the stalking charge?

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said cases like Zahir’s are not isolated. Galperin, who also co-founded the Coalition Against Stalkerware, said officers using license-plate reader access to track romantic partners is a pattern with roots that predate Flock’s cameras entirely.

“The tendency of people in power, of law enforcement, of people with surveillance powers, to use those powers to stalk people, especially romantic interests, current or former partners, is so common that in the NSA they actually have a cute little word for it,” Galperin said. “They call it ‘LOVEINT.’ It’s short for love intelligence.”

Galperin said the abuse isn’t limited to any one type of officer or relationship. She pointed to two recent cases as examples: a Massachusetts officer accused of using Flock to stalk an ex-girlfriend, and a Wisconsin case in which the detective assigned to investigate an officer’s Flock misuse was later found to have misused the system himself.

In New Bedford, Massachusetts, Officer Emily Pacheco was placed on leave this month after her ex-girlfriend’s restraining order request alleged Pacheco ran her license plate through Flock to track her following their breakup. A judge extended the restraining order, along with an order for Pacheco to surrender her firearms, for six months. New Bedford’s police chief said the case is one of several misuse investigations that led him to suspend the department’s use of Flock.

In Milwaukee, former police detective Tehrangi Chapman was fired and pleaded not guilty to charges after prosecutors said he used the department’s Flock database to track two people 20 times and placed a GPS tracker on a victim’s car. Court records show Chapman had been one of the internal affairs detectives assigned to investigate a different officer, Josue Ayala, for his own Flock misuse. Ayala pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after tracking an ex-partner and her new partner more than 170 times, and was sentenced to probation.

“No matter what the gender of the perpetrator, the targets are just overwhelmingly women,” Galperin said.

Excuse me, they call it love intelligence when it is stalking and sexual harassment? What the actual fuck?