A federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that a sheriff’s deputy violated a woman’s Fourth Amendment rights by searching Flock Safety’s license plate database without a warrant, marking one of the first times a federal court has found such a search unconstitutional.
Judge Sara Hill ruled in the Tulsa case that the deputy lacked “no apparent reason” for the search “other than the fact that [the woman’s vehicle] had a California license plate,” according to reporting by 404 Media. The deputy subsequently used the woman’s travel history from Flock to justify searching her vehicle, where he allegedly discovered 91 pounds of methamphetamine. However, Judge Hill ordered that all evidence obtained after the warrantless Flock search “must be suppressed as the fruit of a poisonous tree.”
Beyond the specific case, Judge Hill issued a broader critique of warrantless Flock searches, writing that tracking people’s location “becomes constitutionally problematic when law enforcement can indiscriminately and passively catalog your whereabouts over an extended period of time and then use that information for any purpose whenever convenient.”
“This is a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance,” Hill wrote. “It is not targeted on a single individual, as in [Carpenter v. United States, a Supreme Court case focused on how government agencies access location data from cell phones]. It is a tool that collects information about all vehicles that pass by any network-connected camera at all times, and it serves up the information to law enforcement on demand.”
The ruling does not create binding precedent, but it reflects growing scrutiny of Flock’s practices across the political spectrum. Several state and local governments, including Florida and Texas, have announced they will stop using the technology. On Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Democrat, introduced the Block Flock Act, which would prohibit federal agencies from using automated license plate readers such as Flock.
Flock CEO Garretty Langley has called for a “compromise” between privacy and safety and apologized to women who have been stalked by law enforcement officers using the platform. The company has also reportedly offered voluntary employee buyouts as it faces mounting criticism and customer cancellations.
Key facts
- A federal judge ruled a warrantless Flock search violated a woman’s Fourth Amendment rights in Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Judge Sara Hill described Flock as ‘indiscriminate mass surveillance’ that tracks all vehicles passing any networked camera
- The judge suppressed all evidence from the car search as ‘fruit of a poisonous tree’
- States including Florida and Texas have said they will stop using Flock
- Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Block Flock Act to ban federal agencies from using automated license plate readers