Fifth Circuit wrestles with constitutionality of warrantless Flock searches
A Fifth Circuit panel heard arguments over whether police use of Flock Safety's camera network to track a robbery suspect's vehicle without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment. The defendant's lawyer argued the system lets police 'reconstruct your pattern of life,' while a Justice Department attorney maintained that publicly observable car movements aren't constitutionally protected.
Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod pressed the government on whether that rule still holds when cameras can appear on every corner and footage can be analyzed instantly; the DOJ's attorney conceded that scenario is 'soon to be' reality but argued the political process, not the Fourth Amendment, is the right check on it. In the underlying case, police used the database to locate a getaway vehicle tied to multiple armed robberies within two and a half hours.
The same circuit ruled earlier this year that a single license-plate-reader alert didn't violate the Constitution, but the defense distinguished that from Flock's retrospective, searchable tracking across time.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.