How Flock Cameras Turned a Legal Road Trip Into Probable Cause

Yahoo News ^ | 8/5/2026 | Alex Barrientos

[fruser1]

Brown County deputies tracked his vehicle through Flock Safety's nationwide Flock cameras: northbound hits on Highway 41, a hit on Bridge Street crossing into Michigan, then southbound on I-41 at 3:56 p.m. They coordinated an intercept. The criminal complaint's probable-cause section spells it out with startling bluntness: "Based on prior flock hits, the vehicle travels to Michigan frequently which is a known source State for Marijuana as it is legal there."

That sentence deserves a second read. Driving to a state where cannabis is legal became, in a Wisconsin courtroom, part of the justification to search a car.

In Madison Heights, Michigan, a cannabis dispensary called JARS was required to install a Flock camera at its parking lot entrance and give police "unhindered live access" just to keep its operating license.

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TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1984truth; alpr; flock; flocktruth

[fruser1]

Flock is only one of about 40+ ALPR vendors, so just because you don't see something on the deflock map, doesn't mean there's not another ALPR there.

In the link below, only Flock and Motorolla ALPRs have tools for "recognizing suspicious behavior", but more vendors will likely start incorporating that.

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/other-alpr-vendors

[DIRTYSECRET]

Gotta love those lawyers. They know their stuff, ezpecially when there’s big money in it.

[uranium penguin]

It will not be long before it will get worse..

Live near to a Tax free state? in many cases, You’re supposed to declare and pay your in state sales taxes.

MJ, Alcohol, Ammo, cigaretts, large ticket appliances?
Tax free/ legal in one.. Reason to stop/ arrest in another?

[Celerity]

I live in a border town. Across the state line pot is legal.

What police will do is sit at the border, timing departing cars and their return time. They know where several dispensary’s are and will compare times with those few shops.

They’ll pull over accordingly. The state I live in has given them permission to pull these cars over not for drugs, but for missing tax revenue. There are reports of gasoline stops too (gas is about 10 cents cheaper across the border). The law is used to pull them over and search the car.

Buying gas in another state is not illegal in any way shape or form. But the interstate commerce law was passed strictly as a back door to pull you over and “not search, but inspect”.

Basically the politicians here have fully subverted the constitution, basic laws, and trust with the community in order to favor unchecked power. The police are complicit, of course.

This is why I’m fully Anti-LEO, and fully anti government. It’s the abuse of power. We didn’t give them this power in this case, they stole it and should be shown at least a picture of the gallows.

[KarlInOhio]

Ohio liquor control agents used to do that “old style”. They would park in the lot of an Indiana liquor store and follow people with Ohio plates back across the border.

[oldtech]

Yes, it’s looking like there might possibly be a little too much surveillance. Used to have the same thing going on with a liquor-by-the-drink situation near our state line. I don’t drink, but wondering if the same situation is still prevalent.

[DugwayDuke]

KarlInOhio wrote: “Ohio liquor control agents used to do that “old style”. They would park in the lot of an Indiana liquor store and follow people with Ohio plates back across the border.”

Our neighboring county, which was dry at the time, would station police in unmarked cars at the liquor store near the county line. These police would radio descriptions of cars, drivers, exiting the liquor store and who drove cars with tags from the neighboring county to other county police just across the county line.

The courts put a stop to this when they ruled that a county could be dry and prohibit liquor sales but could not prohibit possession.

[KrisKrinkle]

“The deputy claimed to smell raw marijuana.”

I sometimes read that an LEO claimed to have smelled marijuana or alcohol, and I wonder if they receive training in this and have to be certified and recertified on occasion, as I understand is required for their dogs.

[Carl Vehse]

"The deputy claimed to smell raw marijuana."

Court decisions allow law enforcement officers to lie to civilians, but it is a crime for civilians to lie to law enforcement.

[DPMD]

The Flock money scam plus the cops and their asset forfeiture scam provide an irresistible urge toward corruption.

[Bshaw]

“Ohio liquor control agents used to do that “old style”. They would park in the lot of an Indiana liquor store and follow people with Ohio plates back across the border.”

We made a trip to Indiana for just that reason before my wedding back in the 90’s. I guess I didn’t consider my wedding liquor to be anybody’s business then, just like I don’t look at Flock as legitimate law enforcement, but rather a surveillance dragnet today.

I want them all gone, and no, I have nothing to hide.

[muir_redwoods]

I’m thinking of a side hustle. I’ll start selling bumper stickers in multi-state blocks of numbers that just might closely resemble license plates. Your car might have a factory installed bracket to hold your actual plate but no law requires you to put it there. So long as your plate is visible, even if surrounded by a dozen replicas from 12 different states I wonder what an ALPR would do.