Full transcript
Investigations have found local police
departments across the country running
searches on Flock's nationwide camera
network at ICE's request more than 4,000
times with no warrant, and it seems to
be totally legal. ICE doesn't have its
own contract with Flock, so it can't
search the network directly. Instead,
federal agents ask local officers who
already have access to run searches for
them. Every search requires an officer
to type in a reason for the search.
Researchers found the words ICE,
immigration, and ICE warrant showing up
in that field again and again and again
from police departments in states with
no obligation to help federal
immigration enforcement at all. In
Carrollton, Georgia, police work
directly with federal agents at their
request. One lieutenant put the
department's policy pretty plainly. He
said, "If federal agents ask for help,
they get it. No questions asked." Now, I
don't think most people realize how
casual that actually is. Why don't they
need a warrant? Well, the Fourth
Amendment protects you from unreasonable
searches. Normally, the government needs
a warrant based on probable cause before
it can search you or your things. But a
1967 case, Katz versus United States,
drew a pretty important line. It said,
"What you knowingly show the public, the
government can see, too, and there's no
warrant needed." For example, your
license plate sits in plain view of
every other driver behind you on the
road. You've already exposed it to the
world, so photographing it or videoing
it isn't a search at all. There's a real
counterargument to this, though. In
2018, in a case called Carpenter versus
United States, the court required a
warrant for historical cell phone
location data because tracking [music]
someone's phone for months creates an
all-encompassing record of their entire
life. Now, you'd think that that same
logic should cover a nationwide camera
network tracking your car everywhere it
goes day after day. But courts have
mostly said no. Their reasoning is that
a handful of mostly scattered snapshots
from different cameras isn't the same
thing as a constant minute-by-minute
tracking of a cell phone. What are your
thoughts? Leave them in the comments.