Federal appeals court weighs whether police need a warrant to search Flock camera records, as Rep. Keith Self pushes a federal warrant rule

A federal appeals court is considering whether police should need a judge's approval before digging through the records of Flock license plate cameras, in a case built on robberies in Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs.

Police used Flock data to tie a man to five armed robberies in several North Texas suburbs in 2024 by mapping where his travels took him past the system's vehicle-scanning cameras, The Texas Tribune reported. He was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison, and his lawyers now want the 5th Circuit appeals court to set the verdict aside.

The defense argues the database is so broad that searching it amounts to a Fourth Amendment search and should require a warrant. At oral arguments in New Orleans on Oct. 5, attorney Matthew Wright told the three-judge panel that "no mortal human has ever possessed" the ability to rebuild a person's movements so quickly.

Before trial, U.S. District Judge Terry Means had refused to keep the Flock evidence out.

The government's answer

Justice Department attorney Michael Weisbuch argued the cameras capture vehicles in separate snapshots on public roads, where drivers have no legal expectation of privacy, rather than tracking anyone continuously. In a brief, prosecutors said the defense could offer only "hyperbolic arguments about a future Panopticon" and that other evidence, including ordinary surveillance video and cellphone data, was just as useful in finding him.

Weisbuch also told the court the man lacked standing to challenge the search because the car police looked up belonged to his sister and he was a passenger.

Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod asked how many cameras it would take for separate snapshots to become constant surveillance, noting the devices are "soon to be" on every street corner. Weisbuch said that question was better left to lawmakers. The court has no deadline to rule.

Lawmakers are lining up

Flock's software logs every vehicle passing any of an estimated 13,000 cameras in Texas, and officers can search data gathered by other departments, according to the Tribune. No warrant is currently required to query it.

U.S. Rep. Keith Self, a McKinney Republican, has proposed legislation that would require federal agencies to get a warrant before using Flock data. At the state level, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican, has promised a bill for the 2027 session to rein in the cameras, writing that her approach "will be founded in the Fourth Amendment."

Other Texas legislators have said they plan bills to restrict or ban automated plate readers.

Police supporters compare the cameras' value to that of DNA testing, the Tribune noted.

Earlier this year the same appeals court ruled that a single camera alerting an officer in a Mississippi case did not violate the Fourth Amendment. On Oct. 1, a federal judge in Oklahoma went the other way in a drug case, finding a Flock search unconstitutional and suppressing the evidence. That ruling has not been appealed.

Sources

The Texas Tribune