The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU submitted an amicus brief in *United States v. Sturdivant* before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups are contesting a district court ruling that allowed officers investigating Cleveland-area robberies to query vehicle databases without a warrant. Police initially identified the suspect's car by entering its make, model, and color into the Flock and ELSAG systems after surveillance footage failed to capture a license plate number. Civil rights attorneys argue that allowing warrantless digital tracking fundamentally differs from observing vehicles on public roads.
Key points
Civil liberties groups maintain that querying interconnected ALPR networks constitutes an…: Civil liberties groups maintain that querying interconnected ALPR networks constitutes an unconstitutional search under the Fourth Amendment.
Automated camera databases enable police to conduct open-ended reviews of past travel mov…: Automated camera databases enable police to conduct open-ended reviews of past travel movements with the click of a button.
The appeal asks the court to reverse a ruling that permitted warrantless mass surveillanc…: The appeal asks the court to reverse a ruling that permitted warrantless mass surveillance searches.
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Today, along with the ACLU, EFF filed an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit court of appeals in United States v. Sturdivant, a case where police warrantlessly tracked a suspect’s movements using Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data. Our brief details the vast, interconnected network of ALPRs that constantly track drivers around the country and argues that this tracking is a “search” under the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.
Sturdivant involves a series of robberies in and around Cleveland, Ohio. Using surveillance camera footage, police identified the make, model, and color of the robber’s car, but they did not know its license plate number. After running an open-ended search of two ALPR databases, Flock and ELSAG, officers learned a car belonging to the defendant had been tracked near sites of the robberies, eventually leading to his arrest. Faced with a motion to suppress the ALPR evidence, the district court held that Mr. Sturdivant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his license plate number because it could be observed by members of the public, and that therefore he had no…
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