Federal Judge Rules Warrantless Flock Search Violated 4th Amendment Rights

A federal judge threw out drug evidence after ruling a sheriff’s deputy violated the Fourth Amendment by pulling a month of a driver’s location history from Flock’s camera network without a warrant.

U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill granted Melisa Kyle’s motion to suppress and ruled the warrantless search of automated license plate reader data unconstitutional, according to the ruling. The drug prosecution against Kyle sits in the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Tulsa County Deputy Freddie Alaniz began trailing Kyle’s Mazda SUV for no reason beyond its California plate, according to the ruling. He queried the Flock system for her plate before he observed any traffic violation. The search logged her car more than 50 times across multiple states in a single month. (RELATED: Surveillance Patent Shows Flock Spying Way Worse Than Advertised)

Hill upheld the traffic stop as valid at its start, according to the ruling. Her objection centered on what came next. Alaniz lacked reasonable suspicion to hold Kyle after he returned her license. The extended detention became unlawful.

NEW: A federal judge in Oklahoma ruled that police violated the Fourth Amendment by searching Flock and other license plate reader data without a warrant, accessing more than 50 records of a driver’s movements across multiple states over a month. pic.twitter.com/3DkpfQYcha

Hill’s second ground addressed the Flock search itself. She ruled that reconstructing a month of Kyle’s movements breached her reasonable expectation of privacy. The search carried no warrant and no probable cause. The decision did not outlaw the technology outright.

Hill described the system as “a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance” in the opinion. “Freedom from persistent, dragnet-style surveillance while in public is not a foreign concept in our society, and it is a reasonable expectation that society already accepts,” she wrote.

A Flock spokesperson rejected the decision in a statement to The Hill. “The ruling goes against the overwhelming weight of authority in similar cases across the country, including multiple recent decisions in Oklahoma, and we expect it will be appealed and ultimately overturned,” the spokesperson said. The company said the order sets no controlling precedent. Flock was not a party to the criminal case, according to Law Commentary.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis each moved over the past two months to restrict it. Several local governments have also canceled their Flock contracts.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York introduced legislation to bar federal agencies from using the systems. The bill would freeze federal grants that help local police buy the technology.