Flocks network is a form of indiscriminate mass surveillance, judge rules

Date:
Mon, 05 Oct 2026 17:01:15 +0000

Description:
A judge says warrantless police searches made using Flocks license plate readers violate Americans Fourth Amendment rights.

FULL STORY
Flock cameras represent indiscriminate mass surveillance and
should be ruled unconstitutional, a federal judge has just declared. Its
yet another blow to the beleaguered automatic license plate recognition
(ALPR) camera maker and reflects growing public opposition to the technology.

The declaration was made when Oklahoma judge Sara Hill ruled that a police officer had violated the Fourth Amendment rights of a woman suspected of methamphetamine trafficking by searching for her license plate in Flocks database. According to 404 Media , the police officer looked up the license plate simply because it was from California, then used the womans travel history as justification for searching her car. In other words, he worked backwards after finding the womans vehicle in the Flock database instead of relying on any kind of probable cause.

The Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. In this instance, the judge ruled that Flocks network of cameras was a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance that had been harnessed by the officer. The judges reasoning was that the license plate search was not supported by probable cause, and it was done without a warrant in violation of [the defendants] Fourth Amendment rights.

Hill disagreed with previous judicial opinions that Flocks network did not breach the Fourth Amendment because its footage was taken in public places. They argued that these opinions do not consider that the network is approaching dragnet-type law enforcement practice and that courts need to catch up to keep abreast of the technology. In the case in question, the police officer got lucky when he pulled over the woman: she was in fact carrying 91 pounds of methamphetamine in her vehicle. But his motivation for pulling her over was the problem: she was simply driving in Oklahoma using a car with California license plates. That was not enough of a probable cause to justify the traffic stop, the judge ruled, and constituted a violation of the womans Fourth Amendment rights against arbitrary searches.

As the judge argued, The factors that the government relies upon are the same type of circumstances that everyday Americans encounter on long road trips
for many legitimate reasons. Many of us drive longer than we want to get to a desired destination, or to no destination at all other than the road and sights ahead. Using Flocks catalog of vehicle footage to stop these everyday people would infringe on their Constitutional rights, Hill declared.

404 Media believes there are currently over 100,000 warrantless license plate searches made within Flocks systems every month. Hills decision is not binding, but it comes shortly after a similar decision ruled that traffic stops made by the US Border Patrol using data from ALPR cameras were unconstitutional.

As Michael Soyfer, a lawyer at the Institute for Justice, put it, Hills decision recognizes the sheer breadth of these systems, that they collect so much information about so many people in a way that sets them apart The way courts have resolved these cases previously has been way too myopic and has ignored the depths of these systems and the sweeping modes of surveillance that allow police to reconstruct the movements of anyone in the country.

We dont know whether this ruling and others like it will lead to any significant changes, and as noted, previous cases have decided that Flock cameras do not present a Fourth Amendment risk. But with public opinion solidifying against the cameras and law enforcements reliance on the tech increasingly called into question , its an issue that will likely continue to face scrutiny going forward.

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/tech/flocks-network-is-a-form-of-indiscriminate-mass -surveillance-judge-rules-as-police-officer-is-accused-of-violating-suspects-f ourth-amendment-rights

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* Origin: capitolcityonline.net * KY, USA (1:2320/107)