Flock Safety and the police who use its automated license plate readers are facing yet another lawsuit over alleged misuse of the technology. This time, a Georgia man says Coweta County sheriff’s deputies ran his car through Flock’s nationwide camera network for months while he was suing the sheriff over a prior arrest.
Tyler Murkerson filed the proposed class action on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, naming Flock, Coweta County, Sheriff Lenn Wood, two sheriff’s office employees, and three unidentified operators as defendants, according to the complaint. Beyond his own claims, Murkerson is seeking to represent a broader group of people whose vehicles were searched on Flock by Georgia law enforcement without any recorded investigative reason.
“We believe this case is the first to allege actual retaliatory animus intended to punish someone for advocating for his own constitutional rights by using Flock cameras to illegally surveil him, invade his privacy, and harass him in clear violation of the law,” Christopher B. Hall, a co-founder and partner at Hall & Lampros, which represents Murkerson, said in a press release on Friday. The firm’s claim that this is the first such lawsuit has not been independently established…