The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have filed a lawsuit against the city of San Jose, California, over its deployment of Flock’s license plate-reading surveillance cameras. The lawsuit claims that the city’s nearly 500 cameras create an invasive database of residents’ movements, which is nearly impossible to avoid. The case is part of ongoing legal challenges against Flock’s surveillance systems, with a similar lawsuit in Norfolk, Virginia, seeking to shut down the network there.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network and Council on American-Islamic Relations, California, and claims that the surveillance is a violation of California’s constitution and its privacy laws. The lawsuit seeks to require police to get a warrant in order to search Flock’s license plate system. The lawsuit is one of the highest profile cases challenging Flock; a similar lawsuit in Norfolk, Virginia seeks to get Flock’s network shut down in that city altogether.