A federal judge determined this week that a sheriff’s deputy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, infringed upon a woman’s Fourth Amendment rights by utilizing Flock Safety to search for her license plate without a warrant. According to hinews, while this ruling does not establish a binding precedent, it marks one of the initial instances in which a federal judge has deemed a Flock search unconstitutional. In her ruling, Judge Sara Hill stated that the deputy should have secured a warrant prior to accessing the Flock database for the woman’s license plate, as he had “no apparent reason” for the search “other than the fact that [the woman’s vehicle] had a California license plate.” The deputy subsequently referenced the woman’s travel history in Flock to justify the search of her vehicle, where he allegedly uncovered 91 pounds of methamphetamine. However, Judge Hill asserted that all evidence obtained following the Flock search “must be suppressed as the fruit of a poisonous tree.”
Judge Hill further criticized warrantless searches of the Flock database, indicating that monitoring individuals’ locations—even in public spaces—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 remarked. “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.”
Hill’s comments align with a growing number of critics of Flock from various political backgrounds. Several local and state governments, including those in Florida and Texas, have announced their intention to discontinue the use of the technology. Additionally, on Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Block Flock Act, which aims to prohibit federal agencies from utilizing automated license plate readers such as Flock. Flock CEO Garrett Langley—who is scheduled for an on-stage interview at TechCrunch Disrupt—has advocated for a “compromise” between privacy and safety, and has expressed regret to women who have experienced stalking by law enforcement officers utilizing the Flock system. Amidst these cancellations, Flock has reportedly offered voluntary employee buyouts as a strategy to reduce its workforce.
