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A federal judge ruled this week that a Tulsa, Oklahoma sheriff\u2019s deputy violated a woman\u2019s Fourth Amendment rights when using Flock Safety to search for her license plate without a warrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As reported by 404 Media<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n In this case, Judge Sara Hill said the deputy should have obtained a warrant before searching the Flock database for the woman\u2019s license plate, as he had \u201cno apparent reason\u201d for the search \u201cother than the fact that [the woman\u2019s vehicle] had a California license plate.\u201d<\/p>\n The deputy then used the woman\u2019s travel history in Flock as part of the justification for searching her car, where he allegedly discovered 91 pounds of meth. But Judge Hill wrote that all evidence obtained after the Flock search \u201cmust be suppressed as the fruit of a poisonous tree.\u201d<\/p>\n Judge Hill also took broader aim at warrantless searches of the Flock database, writing that tracking people\u2019s location \u2014 even when they\u2019re in public places\u00a0\u2014 becomes \u201cconstitutionally 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance,\u201d Hill wrote. \u201cIt is not targeted on a single individual, as in [Carpenter v. United States<\/em>, a Supreme Court case focused on how government agencies access location data from cell phones<\/a>]. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Hill joins a growing chorus of Flock critics from across the political spectrum. Numerous local and state governments, including Florida and Texas<\/a>, have said they will stop using the technology. And on Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders \u2014 a Democrat from Vermont \u2014 introduced the Block Flock Act<\/a>, which would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers such as Flock.<\/p>\n Flock CEO Garretty Langley \u2014 who we\u2019ll be interviewing on-stage at TechCrunch Disrupt<\/a> \u2014 has called for a \u201ccompromise\u201d between privacy and safety<\/a> and offered an apology to women who have been stalked by law enforcement officers using the Flock system. And with all those cancellations, Flock has also reportedly offered voluntary employee buyouts<\/a> as a way to shrink its workforce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n