Syracuse University Says DPS Controls Oversight, Law Enforcement’s Access to Campus Flock Data

"Flock Safety, the company behind the eight license plate readers Syracuse University installed on campus last month, maintains that its technology does not infringe on the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees protection from unreasonable search and seizure. Because license plates are government-issued and used on public roads, Flock’s website says the readers comply with the Fourth Amendment. The website also says the technology doesn’t 'track people' like a GPS; rather, it only captures images in a set location. Sidney Thaxter, a senior litigator at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Fourth Amendment Center, said Flock’s language is 'deceptive.'...

Thaxter said it is difficult to track large-scale instances of law enforcement circumventing official policy to share data with their peers. The reliability of the audit trail requires the person who did the audit to provide an honest reason. Investigative reporting across the United States, including from 404 Media, found Flock informally allowed the federal government, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, access to its audits.

'These are, at this point, incredibly powerful mass surveillance tools that track the movement of every citizen around the country, whether or not you’re suspected of a crime,' Thaxter said.... Thaxter said this data is 'incredibly easy to share without anybody ever knowing,' but even institution-specific limitations could still be overcome by a judicial order, like a search warrant."