A federal judge in Oklahoma suppressed evidence after ruling that a warrantless search across automated license-plate reader systems, including Flock Safety cameras, violated the Fourth Amendment. The search allowed law enforcement to reconstruct a driver’s movements without obtaining a warrant first. Automated plate-reader networks have expanded rapidly because individual cameras can be installed by police departments, neighborhoods and private businesses, but the ruling focuses on what happens when those separate data points become a searchable record of a person’s travel. The case does not eliminate license-plate readers, but it puts new legal pressure on the ability of police to use aggregated camera networks as retrospective tracking systems.
Sources: Washington Post, federal court reporting