Federal Judge Rules a Flock Search Was Unconstitutional
4 hours ago
- A federal judge ruled that a police officer's warrantless search of a license plate in Flock's ALPR system, based solely on the plate being from California, violated the Fourth Amendment.
- The judge determined that Flock's network constitutes 'a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance' and that the officer should have obtained a warrant before searching.
- The decision is one of the first federal rulings to hold Flock searches unconstitutional, though it does not set binding precedent and may be appealed.
- The judge suppressed all evidence from the search, including 91 pounds of meth, because the initial ALPR query was an unconstitutional search.
- The judge criticized previous rulings that allowed warrantless ALPR searches, arguing they failed to consider the nationwide dragnet nature of these systems.
- Legal experts praised the decision as a landmark recognition of the privacy implications of large-scale license plate reader networks.