An Oklahoma federal judge has thrown out automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) evidence in a meth trafficking case, marking what experts call the most significant application yet of the Supreme Court's June geofencing ruling. Judge Sara Hill ruled on October 1 that a sheriff's deputy violated Melisa Kyle's constitutional rights by searching Flock's national database to reconstruct a month of her vehicle's movements without a warrant. Hill described the practice as "dragnet-type law enforcement" and "indiscriminate mass surveillance," citing the Supreme Court's Chatrie decision, which limited warrantless access to historical cell phone location data held by tech companies.

The case is notable because courts have long held that license plate scans on public roads do not implicate privacy rights. Hill broke from that pattern, arguing that ALPR systems become constitutionally problematic when they passively catalog a person's whereabouts over an extended period and make that history retroactively available to police. She acknowledged that Flock cameras are less granular than cell phone tracking but still found the deputy's search unconstitutional. The officer had stopped Kyle primarily because of her California plate, then used Flock to find 50 instances of her car traveling across multiple states before searching her vehicle and finding methamphetamine.

Because the ruling comes from a federal district court, it does not set binding precedent. But legal scholars and privacy advocates say it is a direct result of Chatrie and will likely influence other judges weighing similar ALPR cases. Andrew Ferguson, a George Washington law professor, called it the first time a court has said ALPR searches require a warrant in some circumstances. A separate Mississippi ruling in August also cited Chatrie to strike down cell tower dumps as unconstitutional general warrants. Oklahoma authorities have not said whether they will appeal. The source article does not include dissenting views or contrary expert opinions beyond noting the prior pattern of court rulings that ALPR searches were acceptable without warrants.Strict JSON only. Ensure no trailingHere is the strict JSON output.```json {