A police officer in the Florida Keys drove at 70 mph, crossed a double-yellow line twice, and nearly hit a white pickup truck before pulling over an SUV he had been tracking. The driver, Deputy Lamar Roman, was not chasing a criminal. He was pursuing a woman he had harassed on the set of the AppleTV+ show Bad Monkey weeks earlier.
Roman met the woman while working an off-duty security shift. He catcalled her as she exited a bus for extras and asked for her name and Instagram handle. She told investigators she was uncomfortable and tried to be standoffish. Roman told her he needed her details “just in case I pull you over someday.” She said she was pulled away by other extras who noted he would not leave her alone.
After the interaction, Roman looked her up in the Master Name Index and then used DAVID, a Florida Department of Motor Vehicles database for law enforcement. He entered her driver’s license number to retrieve her record, signature, vehicle information, and current photo. He told investigators he knew this was illegal. “Right when I did that, I was like ‘fuck’,” he said in an interview.
He then entered her license plate into the Guardian automated license plate reader system. This created a “hotlist” entry. The system sends real-time notifications when a vehicle on the list passes a surveillance camera. Roman received a ping and drove to her location.
Footage from his cruiser shows him speeding down a two-lane highway. He passed a dump truck in a no-passing zone and then crossed the double-yellow line to pass another truck. He passed a third vehicle, forcing the white pickup to veer off the roadway to avoid a collision. The speed limit in that section of the Florida Keys is 55 mph. Roman was going at least 70 mph.
He pulled the woman over without logging the stop in the department’s traffic catalog system. He did not have a body camera running, nor did the vehicle capture audio of the encounter. When he approached, she asked if her information appeared on his screen. Roman replied, “I told you I’d find you and pull you over.” He also said he was hoping her boyfriend was in the car so he could give him a hard time.
The woman told investigators she had no idea Roman had used law enforcement databases to search her or track her vehicle movement. She advised him she was late for her destination and repeatedly asked if she could leave. He eventually told her she could go.
Roman admitted to the surveillance and the reckless driving during his interview with investigators. He acknowledged the pursuit was an effort to stop her and say “hey.” When asked if there was a legal reason for putting her vehicle tag in the license plate reader system, he said no.
What it means
This case illustrates how police databases and surveillance tools can be combined to investigate and follow anyone. Systems like Guardian and Flock allow officers to create hotlists that trigger alerts when a specific car passes a camera. While nominally intended for stolen vehicles or suspects, these tools enable personal stalking projects. Roman’s arrest in March highlights the risks when law enforcement access to these systems is abused for personal reasons.
