DEBARMENT

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Debarment is the legal exclusion of certain individuals or companies from being awarded contracts by an entity (in this case, Baltimore City Government), usually for ethical reasons. Debarments can be permanent ("bans") or temporary ("moratoriums"). Baltimore City's debarments can be found in City Code Section 5, Subtitle 41: Prohibited Contracts.

In a bill we have proposed to Baltimore City Council, Divest Baltimore City from Companies Profiting from ICE Abductions, we define "ICE profiteers" as "companies that hold contracts with the DHS or provide direct support for immigration enforcement in any way".

Companies that work with ICE are often subcontracted by ICE contractors, as was the case with Avelo Airlines (subcontracted through CSI Aviation) until they gave in to pressure, including by our local Avelo Out of BWI coalition, and discontinued their ICE flights in early 2026. Other companies, like Flock, allow their customers to provide ICE with access to their data.

We are specifically targeting Automated License Plate Reader ("ALPR") cameras, the major brand of which is Flock, as well as facial recognition software. There are definitely other forms of exploitative surveillance -- really, all surveillance is exploitative, as the police state exists to maintain an exploitative social order -- such as ShotSpotters, which record loud audio in predominately Black and Brown neighborhoods and alert police to assumed shootings, and Ring-brand and other Peer-to-Peer cameras (which Baltimore City heavily subsidizes and networks in their CitiWatch program.) However, we are focusing on ALPR and facial recognition technologies due to the degree to which AI automation and insecure networking expand their exploitability and impact.

ALPR Cameras

Despite the name, ALPR cameras do not solely record license plate information. They are fully functioning cameras, capturing all visual information as they run. Powered by AI, they identify vehicles and people, turn toward them, and notate identifying visual information. They have a terrible track record for mis-identifying license plate numbers and otherwise mis-identifying what they record. They are also famously easy to hack.

Facial Recognition Software

If you click on the link to Baltimore City's debarment code in the previous section, you'll find a moratorium on "facial surveillance technology" with an expiration date of December 31, 2022. This moratorium was passed as City Ordinance 21-0001, banning both government and private businesses and individuals from using this technology. However, the City Council allowed the moratorium to expire, so it hasn't been in effect since 2022. We want them to remove the expiration date to revive the ordinance and make it permanent.

"Exploitative, AI-powered"

Both of the above technologies depend on modern, often sloppy, highly automated machine learning ("AI") programs that usually depend on web services for processing and record to online databases that federal agencies can access without subpoenas and which risk surveillance data being hacked by other malicious people and organizations.

They are therefore exploitative in three senses:

1. They enable stalking and abuse by federal and local police, as well as by hackers.

2. They create a world in which people are terrorized by constant surveillance and awareness of the risks it puts them in, including via mis-identification, influencing their behavior.

3. They create a market in which private companies sell personal details about unconsenting, unconvicted individuals to both state and private actors.