Judge rules warrantless Flock plate search violated woman's rights

October 4, 2026 at 01:02 AM2 min

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U.S. District Judge Sarah Hill ruled that a Tulsa County deputy violated a woman's Fourth Amendment rights by querying her license plate in the Flock Safety database without a warrant. The court ordered evidence obtained after the database search, including 91 pounds of methamphetamine, excluded from the case. The ruling is among the first federal decisions finding such a search unconstitutional.

Key Facts

Judge Sarah Hill ruled that the deputy had no apparent reason to check the plate other than the car's California registration.
The search of the car uncovered 91 pounds of methamphetamine, according to the prosecution.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to ban federal agencies from using automated license plate readers, including Flock systems.
Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley called for a compromise between privacy and security and apologized to women tracked by law enforcement using the system.

The Ruling

Judge Sarah Hill ruled that the deputy sheriff in Tulsa, Oklahoma, violated the woman's Fourth Amendment rights by checking her license plate in the Flock Safety database without a warrant. The judge noted that the officer had no apparent reason to check the plate other than that the car was registered in California. The officer later used data on the woman's movements from the Flock database to justify searching her car. The court ruled that evidence obtained after the database search must be excluded.

Mass Surveillance Concerns

Hill described the practice as a form of indiscriminate mass surveillance. She distinguished the case from Carpenter v. United States, which concerned government access to cellphone location data. The Flock system collects data on every vehicle that passes its networked cameras, and law enforcement can request that information.

System Criticism

The system has drawn criticism across the political spectrum. Some local and state authorities, including in Florida and Texas, have said they have stopped using it. Vermont Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to ban federal agencies from using automated license plate readers, including Flock systems. Company CEO Garrett Langley called for a compromise between privacy and security and apologized to women who had been tracked by law enforcement using the system. Amid the cancellation of contracts, the company reportedly offered employees voluntary severance payments.