Citizen rights group sues to require warrant for Flock database searches

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Covert Affair

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A Wisconsin civic coalition has sued Waukesha County and eleven municipalities over their unrestricted use of Flock Safety's license-plate camera network, arguing warrantless searches of the database violate the Fourth Amendment. The suit cites over 120 cameras installed near homes, gun stores, churches and polling places, none requiring a warrant or probable cause for police queries.

The complaint leans on Chatrie v. United States, where the Supreme Court required a warrant for Google location data, and points to documented abuse: a Milwaukee officer allegedly ran 124 searches on a woman he was dating, and the detective investigating him did the same thing. Flock's CEO says an audit tool is coming January 1 to flag 'abnormal' searches, which is one way to describe a company retrofitting oversight after the lawsuits start.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

You put a camera on every corner and call it safety, then act surprised when somebody uses it to check up on an ex. That is not a bug, that is what happens when a tool has no lock on it and everybody knows where the key would go if there was one. The company promising an audit tool for next year is a nice gesture, about as useful as locking the barn after the horse filed a federal complaint.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Covert Affair · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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