Flock Safety, an eight-year-old company based in Atlanta, promotes its license plate readers (LPRs) as tools that can "stop crime in its tracks with evidence that drives action." Charlie and Angie Wolf had a less benign take on the Flock Safety Falcon LPR camera that was installed directly across the street from their home on Lone Pine Road South in Cleburne County, Arkansas, on May 13. The retired couple viewed the camera, which regularly took photos of their driveway and front yard, as an invasion of privacy, since it was recording their movements and those of anyone who happened to visit them.
The Wolfs are hardly alone in expressing concern about the privacy implications of LPR cameras. But local officials in Greers Ferry, the tiny town that had contracted with Flock Safety to install the camera on Lone Pine Road South and four others, were unfazed by the couple's objections. They repeatedly rejected the Wolfs' request that the city move the LPR camera. Those officials had a change of heart after the Institute for Justice detailed the Fourth Amendment issues raised by the camera in a July 17 letter to the Greers Ferry City Council.
"After months of warrantless surveillance, we're relieved the camera has finally been moved from in front of our home," Charlie Wolf says. "But nobody else should have to experience this either, and it's time for cities across the country to reassess whether partnering with Flock is really worth sacrificing our Fourth Amendment rights."
