Federal judge calls Flock ‘indiscriminate mass surveillance’
A federal judge in Oklahoma ruled that the use of Flock Safety license plate tracking technology without a warrant constitutes unconstitutional mass surveillance. The ruling suppressed evidence in a drug case, marking a significant legal challenge to the widespread use of automated surveillance tools by law enforcement.
Why it matters
This decision sets a potential legal precedent that could force law enforcement agencies to reconsider how they use automated license plate readers and mass data collection tools.
A federal judge ruled this week that a Tulsa, Oklahoma sheriff’s deputy violated a woman’s Fourth Amendment rights when using Flock Safety to search for her license plate without a warrant.
As reported by 404 Media , this ruling does not create a binding precedent, but it is one of the first times that a federal judge has ruled that a Flock search is unconstitutional.
In this case, Judge Sara Hill said the deputy should have obtained a warrant before searching 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.”
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