WAUKESHA COUNTY, Wis.— A new lawsuit is challenging how law enforcement agencies in Waukesha County use Flock license plate reader cameras.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the lawsuit Thursday, September 10, on behalf of Waukesha County residents and taxpayers. It names Waukesha County along with 11 cities and villages, including Waukesha, Brookfield, Muskego, Oconomowoc and Pewaukee.
WILL is asking the court to require police to get a warrant before using Flock’s database to follow someone’s movements, unless a recognized exception applies, such as an emergency.
The lawsuit points to Elm Grove as one example. WILL says Elm Grove officers searched data from the village’s six Flock cameras about 250 times in June, July and August. During that same period, outside agencies, mostly from other states, searched data from those cameras about 3 million times.
Flock cameras can record when and where vehicles are seen, and information collected by one camera can be searched by agencies using the larger Flock network. WILL says Flock also offers tools that can show a vehicle’s travel history and identify movement patterns.
There are more than 120 Flock cameras in Waukesha County. The company’s network includes cameras across Wisconsin and the country.
The lawsuit does not seek to remove the cameras. Instead, WILL wants additional limits on how police can search the information collected by the system.
Several Wisconsin law enforcement agencies have stopped using Flock recently. The City of Sheboygan, Racine County, and even agencies in Fond du Lac County ended their agreements. Most concerns usually stem from data being collected by the cameras from citizens in the area.
WILL’s lawsuit also cites a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Google location data. The group argues similar Fourth Amendment protections should apply when police use Flock data to track someone’s movements.
