Imagine changing your normal routine by driving an alternate route to get to work when you are suddenly pulled over by the police and interrogated because you’re displaying “suspicious” activity. Well, imagine no longer because the decision by Colorado’s government overlords to “sit out” on the opportunity to pass a bill (Senate Bill 70) regulating their Big Brother-inspired Flock license plate reader system will make every Colorado driver subject to police detainment for displaying suspicious behavior — or for any other purpose the surveillance state considers a “safety” issue — without a warrant.
Equally concerning, however, is how other government agencies (such as ICE) will have access to the information obtained by the Flock system in Colorado without a warrant. We had a real-life example of this situation in Loveland nearly a year ago (June 2025) when it was discovered that the Loveland Police Department (LPD) had admitted to allowing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to access their Flock Safety account and how they used the LPD Flock to conduct searches in the national law enforcement database, listing “ICE” as a reason for searches — despite the fact that Colorado law prohibits local agencies from sharing information with ICE without a warrant or subpoena.
But apparently, warrants and other pesky Fourth Amendment protections are a few of the reasons government power brokers looking for ways to protect their power object to SB 70; the bill contained a provision prohibiting law enforcement and other officials from obtaining information collected by Flock on an individual in most circumstances unless they had a valid warrant or the person’s consent. It also would have prevented sharing Flock data with out-of-state jurisdictions and would have required agencies to keep a record of when they access the database…