Are Automated License Plate Readers Unconstitutional?

Our Take

The New Civil Liberties Alliance is doing something we wish happened more often: actually testing Flock-style surveillance in court instead of just accepting it as the cost of modern policing. Their suit against Coral Gables and Florida's state agencies goes after the core problem with ALPR networks — they don't watch for a suspect, they watch everyone, all the time, and store the results so government can rewind your life whenever it wants. That's a warrantless dragnet dressed up as a parking-enforcement tool, and NCLA is right to call it out.

What makes this case worth watching is that it's not just a privacy complaint, it's a constitutional one. If courts start agreeing that blanket plate scanning without individualized suspicion violates the Fourth Amendment, that precedent doesn't stay in Florida — it becomes ammunition for challenges everywhere Flock cameras have quietly multiplied. Local governments have leaned on the excuse that ALPRs are 'just cameras on public roads,' but retention, sharing, and pattern-of-life tracking are a different animal than a cop glancing at a plate.

Credit to NCLA for pushing this into the courtroom where it belongs. While the case plays out, check our camera map to see what's already watching your own streets, and hit take action if you want to push back locally before your city ends up in a lawsuit of its own.