Institute for Justice Files Lawsuit Challenging Flock Safety Mass Surveillance as Unconstitutional

The Institute for Justice files a federal lawsuit on behalf of Norfolk residents Lee Schmidt and Crystal Arrington, challenging the city’s deployment of 172 Flock Safety automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras as an unconstitutional violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches.

The lawsuit argues that “strategically blanketing Norfolk’s roads with AI-equipped ALPR cameras—and storing everyone’s location data without a warrant for weeks at a time—violates the Fourth Amendment.” Unlike traffic violation cameras that photograph specific violations, Flock’s system photographs every vehicle that passes and uses AI to create comprehensive tracking profiles stored in massive databases that law enforcement can search without warrants.

The constitutional challenge represents a major test case for automated surveillance technology. Critics argue that ALPR databases create comprehensive records of everybody’s comings and goings, fundamentally transforming the government’s ability to track citizens’ movements without individualized suspicion of wrongdoing.

In February 2025, Chief Judge Mark S. Davis of the Eastern District of Virginia refuses to dismiss the lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiffs “plausibly alleged that a warrantless search occurred, and thus interests that the Fourth Amendment was designed to protect have been violated.” The court also rejects Flock Safety’s late attempt to intervene and defend its technology, finding the company’s motion “untimely.”

The case establishes important precedent for challenging mass surveillance infrastructure and could impact the deployment of similar systems in thousands of jurisdictions nationwide.