Federal judge calls Flock ‘indiscriminate mass surveillance’

A federal judge has ruled that a Tulsa, Oklahoma sheriff's deputy violated a woman's Fourth Amendment rights by searching the Flock Safety license plate database without a warrant, according to a ruling reported by 404 Media. The decision does not set binding precedent, but it marks one of the first instances of a federal judge finding a Flock search unconstitutional.

Judge Sara Hill wrote that the deputy lacked any apparent reason for the search beyond the fact that the woman's vehicle carried a California license plate. She determined that the travel history the deputy pulled from Flock was then used to justify searching the woman's car, where 91 pounds of meth were allegedly found. Hill ordered that all evidence gathered after the Flock search must be suppressed as the fruit of a poisonous tree.

The judge also directed broader criticism at warrantless searches of the Flock database. She wrote that monitoring people's movements, even in public, raises constitutional problems when law enforcement can passively and indiscriminately record a person's whereabouts over a long period and draw on that information whenever it suits them. Hill described the technology as a form of indiscriminate mass surveillance, contrasting it with Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court case on government access to cell phone location data. She noted that Flock is not aimed at a single individual but collects data on every vehicle passing any connected camera at all times and delivers it to law enforcement on demand.

The ruling adds to mounting criticism of Flock from across the political spectrum. Several local and state governments, including Florida and Texas, have said they will stop using the technology. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democrat from Vermont, introduced the Block Flock Act, which would prohibit federal agencies from using automated license plate readers such as Flock.

Flock CEO Garrett Langley has pushed for what he calls a compromise between privacy and safety, and he has apologized to women who were stalked by law enforcement officers using the Flock system. Amid the cancellations, the company has reportedly offered voluntary employee buyouts as a way to shrink its workforce.

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