A Georgia small-business owner has sued Flock and the Coweta County Sheriff's Office, alleging that deputies used the company's license plate cameras to surveil him in retaliation for a separate excessive-force lawsuit. The complaint, filed October 8, claims deputies searched the plaintiff's plate many times over months without probable cause, entering only vague free-text fields such as "info" and "37" rather than linking to any investigation.
The case highlights a long-reported weakness in Flock's platform: it accepted any text in a justification field, including "hehehe" in other departments. The plaintiff's attorneys argue this allowed Fourth Amendment-implicated searches with no controls. Flock has since said it will require case codes for all law enforcement searches by the end of 2026, a change the company announced in August.
Flock disputes the lawsuit's claims and says it will defend itself in court. The Coweta County Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for comment. The plaintiff's attorney said the issue is not photographing license plates but enabling illegal surveillance, and a surveillance watchdog noted that "culture eats policy for lunch," suggesting guardrails alone are insufficient. The lawsuit comes as hundreds of agencies have dropped Flock amid broader backlash over overbroad surveillance. [Source: Ars Technica]