10/09/2026
New federal ruling on "FLOCK Cameras": what it means (and what it doesn’t)
A federal judge in the Northern District of Oklahoma just ruled that a deputy’s warrantless search of a month of license plate reader (ALPR/flock camera) data was an unconstitutional search under the Fourth Amendment.
The facts: A deputy saw a Mazda with a California plate on an Oklahoma highway. With no other reason to suspect anything, he ran the plate through ALPR systems, which showed a roughly month-long history of the car’s movements. He then followed the car, pulled it over for traffic violations, extended the stop, and ultimately searched the vehicle.
The holding: In United States v. Kyle, No. 26-CR-00189-SEH (N.D. Okla. Oct. 1, 2026), the court granted the motion to suppress on two independent grounds:
🔹 The stop was unlawfully extended. The officer had no reasonable suspicion to hold the driver after returning her license.
🔹 The ALPR search violated the Fourth Amendment. Relying on Carpenter and the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Chatrie, the court held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of their physical movements, and that indiscriminate, dragnet-style tracking of every vehicle crosses the line.
IMPORTANT CAVEAT: This is a single district court opinion from Oklahoma. It is not binding law in Arkansas or the Eighth Circuit. The court itself acknowledged that nearly every other court to consider the issue has reached the opposite conclusion, and neither the Tenth Circuit nor the U.S. Supreme Court has decided whether ALPR use is a search. Expect an appeal, and expect this issue to keep developing.
Why it matters: As ALPR networks expand, courts are being asked how far the Fourth Amendment’s protections reach in an era of mass data collection. This opinion is one to watch.
If you or someone you know has been stopped or charged in a case involving ALPR data, the details matter. Contact our office to discuss your situation.