The big picture: While a federal judge's finding that an Oklahoma police officer's Flock database search was unconstitutional doesn't change legal precedent, it signals a shift in how the law views networked surveillance cameras. As communities across the US turn against the AI-powered devices, lawmakers have begun calling for new restrictions, and in some cases a federal ban.
Oklahoma federal judge Sara Hill described automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) as a form of indiscriminate mass surveillance, comparing them to dragnet-style searches. Her ruling suggests that networked cameras like those sold by Flock and Axon differ fundamentally from other police surveillance tools, with consequences for the law and for citizens' expectations of privacy.
In May, Tulsa County Deputy Sheriff Freddie Alaniz, parked along the side of a highway, saw a vehicle with a California license plate pass by and followed it solely because it bore out-of-state plates. After running the plate through Flock's AI-powered nationwide database, he pulled the car over, supposedly for changing lanes without a turn signal.
While questioning the driver, Melisa Kyle, Alaniz reviewed more than 50 instances in which Flock's cameras had detected her vehicle traveling across the country, and searched it on suspicion of drug trafficking. Although he found roughly 91 pounds of meth in Kyle's SUV, the court threw out the evidence, ruling that the Flock search lacked probable cause and a warrant.
Arguably the most important detail is that Hill declared the search a Fourth Amendment violation, breaking with prior rulings involving ALPRs.
Other judges have likened Flock cameras to other police surveillance methods and noted that drivers have no reasonable expectation of privacy on public roads. Hill, however, found that Flock's nationwide database puts it in a different category, giving officers a vast trove of data to search without a warrant on theoretically anyone traveling across state lines.
ALPRs, which use AI to automatically sort license plates from passing vehicles into a searchable database (sometimes inaccurately), have drawn fierce pushback across the nation. As officials question their impact on privacy and dozens of officers are caught using them for stalking, many communities are attempting to remove Flock cameras, and don't always succeed.
As surveillance companies weigh expanding into mobile drones, lawmakers are pushing back. Late last month, Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube introduced a bill requiring warrants to use ALPRs.
Meanwhile, senators Bernie Sanders and Jeff Merkley, and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently introduced the Ban Flock Act, which would bar federal agencies from using ALPRs and cut off federal funding for them.