Federal Judge Rules Warrantless Flock Search Unconstitutional After Deputy Pulls Month of Driver’s Travel History — Calls System ‘Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance’
michael 
A federal judge in Oklahoma just threw out a drug case after ruling that police violated the Fourth Amendment when they used Flock Safety’s automated license-plate cameras to pull a driver’s travel history for roughly a month, without a warrant, and without probable cause.
U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill of the Northern District of Oklahoma ruled that Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy Freddie Alaniz conducted an “Unconstitutional Warrantless Search” when he queried Flock and other automated license plate reader systems on a Mazda SUV simply because it had a California plate.
According to 404 Media, the search returned more than 50 records of the driver’s whereabouts across the country. Hill suppressed the Flock records and everything that came out of the later search of the vehicle.
The defendant is Melisa Kyle, 46, of Crane, Missouri, charged with possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute.
According to Law Commentary, the case began in May when Alaniz, who also served as a DEA task force officer, was parked along Interstate 44, saw the California plate, pulled onto the highway, and started following the SUV.
He later stopped Kyle for changing lanes without a signal, then used the Flock history to question her about her travel and to justify searching the car.
Authorities said they found about 91 pounds of methamphetamine packed in luggage, marijuana, and roughly $7,000 in cash. Hill ruled the constitutional violation happened earlier, when the deputy reached into the historical location database.
“The Fourth Amendment requires courts to draw a line when the cost is too great,” Hill wrote.
“Alaniz’s search in just the ALPR system provided him with more than 50 individual records of Kyle’s whereabouts across the country for an entire month.”
She went further. The systems, she wrote, “intruded on her reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of her physical movements.” And the only reason for the query, based on the record, was the out-of-state plate.
Hill called the technology “a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance.” It is not aimed at one suspect. It logs vehicles that pass any camera on the network, then hands the history to law enforcement on demand.
The judge said Flock’s nationwide network is quickly “approaching dragnet-type law enforcement practice.”
Flock was not a party to the case. A company spokesperson told 404 Media the ruling “goes against the overwhelming weight of authority in similar cases across the country, including multiple recent decisions in Oklahoma,” and that Flock expects it to be appealed and overturned.
The company said the decision is limited to the facts of this case and does not set a controlling precedent.
The Gateway Pundit has repeatedly reported on the growing controversy surrounding Flock’s nationwide surveillance infrastructure.
In late September, The Gateway Pundit reported that Flock moved to take down a public map after a researcher exposed roughly 300,000 devices tied to the company, more than 170,000 cameras plus acoustic sensors and other gear. Flock has publicly claimed more than 120,000 cameras and on the order of 20 billion vehicle scans a month.
Days earlier, The Gateway Pundit reported that a Pinellas County, Florida, deputy was arrested after running hundreds of searches on a woman he reportedly wanted a relationship with, about 300 of them through the Flock system. A second deputy was arrested after looking up a 17-year-old girl. In August, a South Carolina officer was fired after allegedly using Flock to spy on an ex-boyfriend.
In August, The Gateway Pundit reported that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott cut off state funding for the cameras after millions in state money had already bought thousands of them. Abbott’s office said agencies were clarifying that those funds cannot be used for Flock cameras. Sen. Rand Paul has warned that Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids at school, or go to church.
President Trump has taken the other side of the argument in public. As The Gateway Pundit reported in September, Trump told reporters he “sort of like[s] them” because law enforcement uses them to catch suspects, while acknowledging that some people see an infringement. He has also said the issue is being studied.
The post Federal Judge Rules Warrantless Flock Search Unconstitutional After Deputy Pulls Month of Driver’s Travel History — Calls System ‘Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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