Automated license plate readers have become a common sight across America. They record passing vehicles and build enormous databases of where they’ve been. Now, a federal circuit judge in Oklahoma has ruled that a certain case involving the use of a month’s worth of ALPR data tracking without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment. She went as far as to describe the technology involved as a form of “indiscriminate mass surveillance.” It’s a key ruling but won’t automatically kill cameras overnight.

 

Initially, it sounds like a potentially devastating ruling for Flock Safety, which operates one of the country’s largest ALPR networks. However, there are two important caveats. First, this is a district court ruling tied to one criminal case. Second, it’s not a nationwide ban or binding precedent for other courts. Perhaps most importantly in the end, the judge’s reasoning wasn’t limited to Flock.