Supreme Court warning casts doubt on Kentucky's license plate camera expansion
A June ruling on location data privacy threatens the legality of statewide Flock camera networks now in use across the state.
What to know
- The Supreme Court ruled June 29 that police need a warrant to access location data from private companies, rejecting the 'third party doctrine' that previously allowed warrantless access.
- Kentucky has deployed Flock Safety automatic license plate readers across at least three dozen law enforcement agencies, with Louisville Metro alone operating 240+ cameras feeding a shared searchable cloud database.
- The reasoning in Chatrie directly threatens the legality of Kentucky's expanding license plate camera network, which the Court's language describes as enabling 'tireless and absolute surveillance' of individuals' movements.
- Newport has already dismantled its Flock pilot in response to the ruling, suggesting other Kentucky cities may follow suit.
“police conduct a Fourth Amendment search when they obtain a person's location data — even from a private company, and even for a short window of time”
U.S. Supreme Court, Court ruling in Chatrie v. United States · Kentucky Lantern
U.S. Supreme Court Court ruling on location privacy
Justice Elena Kagan Supreme Court justice writing majority opinionKentucky law enforcement agencies Operators of Flock Safety camera networkNewport, Kentucky City governmentFlock Safety Vendor of automatic license plate reader technology
The record 1 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 3 voices from 1 site · verbatim
- Aug 12
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"On June 29, the Court ruled in Chatrie v. United States that police conduct a Fourth Amendment search when they obtain a person’s location data — even from a private company, and even for a short window of time." Secure from unreasonable searches and seizures
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SCOTUS ruled that police conduct a 4th Amendment search when they obtain a person’s location data — even from a private company. They warned against surveillance that lets police reconstruct a person’s movements after the fact, enabling “tireless & absolute surveillance” of anyone, anywhere.
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Commentary: The Supreme Court has a message for Kentucky on surveillance: Get a warrant