Embattled Racine Detective and Somers Resident Demoted, Suspended 10 Days After Using Flock to Surveil Girlfriend’s Ex

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Racine County Deputy Emil Ortiz, 37, of Somers (Mugshot)
FLOCK Image Illegally Obtained by Ortiz

KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis. — Embattled Racine County Sheriff’s Detective Emil Ortiz, a Somers resident, has now been demoted back to Deputy and suspended 10 days without pay after investigators concluded he repeatedly abused powerful police surveillance and intelligence systems — including FLOCK license-plate recognition cameras, CLEAR, and the Wisconsin TIME criminal database — to spy on his new girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend. Records show Ortiz didn’t access these systems once or twice — he did so dozens of times between August 10, 2025, and October 9, 2025, pulling personal data, tracking vehicle information, and building what amounted to a personal surveillance file. Despite what many consider to be criminal misuse of government surveillance technology, Ortiz was not fired and is not facing criminal charges, echoing the strikingly similar case of Kenosha County Sheriff’s Deputy Frank McGrath, who was also caught abusing FLOCK technology and likewise is not being criminally prosecuted.

Flock Camera in Kenosha County
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)

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61 Responses

    1. Like a few acts of misconduct reflects on all.
      No, it doesn’t.
      Do you blame all plumbers if one plumber leaves a pipe
      loose and it floods a customer’s house ???
      Do you blame all plumbers for that ???
      You’re an idiot.

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      1. Sorry Mr. Long:

        When LEO’s engage in criminal acts, people die and innocent people get sent to prison. They can take away your liberty. Plumbers can not do that unless the commit a crime. Cops get away with those crimes, much like this stalker deputy did.

        Every cop I know would disagree with your comparison of them to a plumber. They almost all have a sense of superiority.

        Plumbers buy their own insurance and would lose it if they are incompetent or ripped people off. We all pay for the corrupt and illegal acts of our officers.

        Also, plumbers will soon find themselves without customers for shoddy work and other plumbers will not blindly defend them. Most cops just keep on working.

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          1. You should know that most intelligent people do not want to be cops. You are correct in your insinuation that “somebody” did not pass the entrance exam. Many law enforcement agencies screen out those who score too high on cognitive ability. Those types generally have well developed critical thinking skills. Those skills are not valued by most police agencies.

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              1. You are demonstrating that the commenter’s point about police agencies preferring to hire those with lower cognitive ability being true.

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  1. Was there more to this? Kevin… What’s the rest of the story? Was there more information that you’re not publishing?

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  2. Are you reading this stuff ?

    If there was ever a crime with no law this is it !

    Representative, you want to put your name on new legislation ?
    This guy and everyone like him should be in JAIL AND LOSE THEIR LAW ENFORCEMENT CERTIFICATION !! FOREVER !!

    If this isn’t a crime it should be.
    This just isn’t someone looking at some employees application in a file cabinet. This is accessing a national database that needs strict oversight and security.

    Amanda Nedweski ? Are you listening ??

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    1. That would include arresting ALL OF GOVERNMENT….STATE AND FEDERAL. Remember the patriot act?! Pepperidge Farms remembers. We are all being tracked, and according to the retard down below, so what. Get a new supervisor.

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  3. If that girlfriend had any brains, she would figure that this guy is a dangerous man who may end up killer her. It is scary that is guy is a cop.

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    1. Have you read the recent news? Kids are out of control. Racine needs a strong guy like this on patrol. Everyone is often criticizing him , maybe it’s the vetting process. But I bet you sleep well with him on patrol.

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    2. Tinted windows are illegal to that extent. And if he knows that guy, even better. Because LE needs to know about him. What if he has a weapon in there?

    1. But we all know that cameras and tracking individual citizens are the way of the future.
      For now here, it’s just license plates.

      Any criminal type TV show will show you how much tracking a person in their travels can help you not only identify them but find them.
      Murderers. Kidnappers. Thieves.
      Isn’t good old fashioned police work asking neighbors if they saw anything ? Instead we ask to see their Ring Doorbell Cameras. That’s legal, isn’t it ?
      The problem isn’t with the cameras and the tracking but who uses it and for what. Instead of fighting the cameras and where they are placed we need to concern ourselves with who can get access and why.

      A family member of mine is a retired cop. I asked him one day many years ago how does it work when individuals come up to him and ask him to “run a license plate”? He told me that for him to run a random license plate he better be sitting in his police car right behind it !
      Because if it came back as wanted for anything, his boss is going to expect him to arrest the driver of that car. If he’s running a license plate for someone else, he knows that is against the law.
      That was 30 years ago.
      Remember, back then cops didn’t have computers in their cars. They had to radio in the plate number to another individual at their station who knew what they were doing and why. Cops nowadays can do it without telling anyone though that process is tracked it doesn’t seem to be monitored. They can run a license plate without sitting behind it. And that is the break and disconnect in that system.

      So let’s monitor who’s accessing the tracking. Why they are doing it and the results they are looking for.

      The problem here is that we created a monster tracking system without creating a way to control it.
      So until we create the control, we need to jail those that abuse it.
      Putting people in jail is a deterrent.
      Here all this guy got was a demotion.
      Was it worth it to him? Probably in his mind.
      If instead of a demotion he received 5 years in jail, or more if the tracking victim was harmed, we wouldn’t have this problem.
      This guy will do this again.
      And we will still blame the camera.
      We are the problem by not demanding better oversight.

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      1. Its because of people like you, that we are monitored do much. Keep believing that it’s just for plate reading. 🤣 The patriot act if for our own enslavement. They should all be smashed by the citizens….but, there’s too many bootlickers for that to happen. Enjoy your open air prison

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        1. So we now have to control it.
          Yes I agree it’s wrong !

          But neither you nor I can stop it.
          Are you willing to go smash these cameras ? Be put in jail for destruction of property ?
          We have to focus on putting abusers in jail. Physical abusers. Wife beaters. Kidnappers. Child molesters.
          And anyone who abuses the camera systems.
          Like our weak judiciary who let off criminals to go out a repeat their crimes, this story is about increasing punishment to the point people think twice before breaking the law.
          Do I want to be followed ? No. But if that’s the price to have criminals taken off the street, so be it.
          It’s that second part we are failing at.

          This deputy got nothing in regards to punishment. A smaller paycheck. That’s all. And you watch. He’ll get a raise down the road or move to a different department.

          We need to fight the battle we can win.
          Cameras are forever. Get used to it

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    2. These Flock systems will continue to be abused. Rip them out and cancel your agreements based on all of this abuse. It is only going to get worse. Kevin is only reporting a tiny fraction of the abuses.

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      1. This guy deserves Prison.
        Years in prison.
        His mind is warped. He thinks that he should control the only female that gave him the time of day. He feels so inadequate that he thinks he can’t find another female to give him attention. This is the way of a screwed up mind. A person who was allowed to carry a badge and a gun.
        He is the problem. Not the camera.
        You think this is the last you will hear about him ???
        He needs to be put in prison.
        But for that to happen there must be a law to send him there. Internal discipline by one random police chief or commission doesn’t solve this problem. He’s disturbed. He can’t control himself. This department will have problems with him again. And the person or people he hurts will be on them for allowing him to carry a gun in their name.

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        1. If we follow your logic, why not put trackers on all 350 million Americans so the police have an easier time finding the bad apple.

          You are insane to think Flock is a not a HUGE problem that needs to be eradicated.

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        2. Have you read the recent news? Kids are out of control. Racine needs a strong guy like this on patrol. Everyone is often criticizing him , maybe it’s the vetting process. But I bet you sleep well with him on patrol.

    3. If you have a “Smart Phone”, you’re already being tracked. Everywhere you go, everything you do online, everything you say/text. Weird nobody complains about that. Wake up! You’re the sheep.
      And no, I don’t have one.

  4. A 19 year old girl who was probably abducted off her street while walking.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-19-year-old-camila-mendoza-olmos-vanishes-outside-her-home-christmas-eve

    Wouldn’t you want law enforcement to look at EVERY CAMERA on that street and neighborhood to try to see the car and guy that took her ?!? Ring cameras ? Store and business security cameras ? Bank ATM cameras ?
    Once determined, then if possible, track the car that took her by the Flock cameras. Then who knows. Maybe find her !!

    Flock cameras are a problem. But the problem lies in the people that use them improperly.
    Those that complain “here” against them are shouting at a brick wall
    That ship has sailed. Is there problems with the use of these national cameras ? Yes !
    But focus on the problem.
    Punish the problem makers.

    You know I have to think that the same people who are complaining that government is tracking them have security cameras outside their homes and property. To keep others away or at least to get a heads up before they open their front door.

    The same politicians who want guns taken away from us are themselves protected by people with guns.

    Government intrusion? Yes. But it can’t be stopped.
    If you want to have these cameras removed, follow the lead of the communities who removed their Red Light Traffic cameras. But even then, that’s just here, not anywhere else

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    1. You’re still a clown who loves to be a slave. Burn it all down. It IS our duty to overthrow a tyrannical government. It was written by our forefathers. You, are a bootlicker.

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      1. You are fighting a lost cause.
        Instead try manage it or work to make it better.

        All or nothing for you.
        Stay home behind you closed doors and never expose yourself to the rest of the world.

  5. I’ve never known an ethical cop. These police think that they’re god’s gift to god. They , abuse their powers on a daily basis and then bust out people with impunity. Thugs with guns.

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    1. And they typically deal with societies ugliness. This web is full of them. I dont think anybody feels that police are totally without garbage but much like going to the battlefield every night and day, its gotta bring you down mentally. Yes, they are held to a higher standard and this person needs to be dealt with in a legal way.

      Cameras… if society wasn’t as ugly as it is there may not be a need. Take a lawn chair and sit where a stop sign is. 85 percent of the drivers dont come to complete stop. They aren’t optional last time I looked and yet the “cops” are being jerks for pulling someone over for the infraction?

      Society is broken and that includes some police also.

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    1. Responsibility also lies in Madison where we need to make “accessing Flock for anything but already committed crimes” a felony offense.

      This guy was tracking a plate with no authorization.

      How was that allowed to happen ?
      Who’s watching the system ? Schmaling ?
      He doesn’t have a law telling him to watch.
      Why is not every entry logged and monitored each shift ?
      How many times in a shift can there be a reason to look in the Flock system ?
      And even at that wouldn’t that be for Detectives?
      Random patrol officers shouldn’t have access.

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KENOSHA, Wis. — In an unusual development following charges filed against Salem woman Savannah Lee Burm, both Burm’s sister and Burm’s attorney contacted Kenosha County Eye after the outlet published a story detailing allegations that Burm helped accused attempted homicide suspect Jake C. Wenzel avoid capture. Burm, 29, was charged on Nov. 26 with Straw Purchasing of a Firearm, Harboring or Aiding a

Manhunt Underway for Kenosha Man Accused of Murdering His Wife After Bargain Bail Billy Denied Her Restraining Order Weeks Earlier

KENOSHA, Wis. — Kenosha police have not officially confirmed the identity of the victim in Tuesday morning’s apparent homicide near 75th Street and 22nd Avenue, but sources indicate the victim is seemingly Makayla Marie Rutka Plaza, 28. The suspect is her estranged husband, 33-year-old Marckus L.A. Plaza, who remained the subject of a massive manhunt as of publication. Police were initially called to

Kenosha County DA Xavier Solis Owes $8,000 in Back Taxes, Addresses Lien: ‘I’m Only Human’

KENOSHA, Wis. — Wisconsin Circuit Court records filed early Tuesday morning show the state Department of Revenue filed a delinquent income tax warrant against Solis in Kenosha County Circuit Court, case number 2026TW000318. The warrant, which carries the force of a civil judgment, reflects $8,024 in unpaid income taxes, $2,873.98 in penalties, and $2,710.60 in accrued interest, a total of $13,608.58. The underlying

Supreme Court Ruling Puts Kenosha Conversion Therapy Ban in Legal Jeopardy

KENOSHA, Wis. — A new U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a Colorado conversion therapy ban is likely to place the City of Kenosha’s own ordinance banning the practice on shaky constitutional ground. On Tuesday, the nation’s highest court ruled 8-1 that Colorado’s law banning licensed therapists from providing conversion therapy to minors violated the First Amendment because it restricted speech based on

Nearly 49 Years After Ralph Gianoli Was Found Beaten and Strangled in His Home, Kenosha Police Say DNA Helped Identify Suspect

KENOSHA, Wis. — Nearly 49 years after Ralph Ambrose Gianoli was found beaten and strangled to death inside his home at 5310 25th Ave., Kenosha police on Tuesday publicly laid out how preserved evidence, modern DNA testing and years of renewed investigative work led to the arrest of a Tennessee man in one of the city’s oldest unsolved homicide cases. Police say James

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Pleasant Prairie Couple Charged With Drugs Months After Child Abuse Investigation; Man Also Faces New Felony Bail Jumping Charge

Kevin S. Hladilek, 41, and Candice D. Hladilek, 39, both of Pleasant Prairie(Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office) PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. — A Pleasant Prairie husband and wife who came under investigation last year after allegations of child abuse in their home are now both facing drug charges, while the husband is also accused of violating the terms of his felony bond. Candice D. Hladilek

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