Federal judge rules warrantless Flock plate searches unconstitutional

On October 1, federal judge Sara Hill in Oklahoma ruled that a police officer's warrantless query of the Flock license plate reader system was an unconstitutional search, and ordered all resulting evidence thrown out.

A deputy ran a query solely because the car had a California plate, obtaining more than 50 records of the driver's movements across the country over a month, and used that history to justify searching her car. Hill found this invaded a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of one's physical movements, writing that such a nationwide networked system "is a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance," and that the 1983 Knotts public-roadway rule does not fit it.

According to audit logs reviewed by 404 Media, there are more than a hundred thousand warrantless queries of the Flock system every month. Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in July the matter was "pretty cut and dry" and courts would not call it a warrantless search. The ruling sets no binding precedent, and several similar cases are pending nationwide.