Flock Camera Files Complaint After Morelock's Case Is Dismissed

At a folding table labeled Object Evidence Desk, a witness-request form naming the Flock automatic license plate reader was stamped and assigned a docket number in Cody Morelock's dismissed case. The form sent the reader toward the witness chair while the support pole and solar panel were tagged as co-witnesses.

The desk classified the reader as a witness in a felony case, then discovered that it had no hands with which to raise itself.

At intake, the reader declined to identify Morelock. It instead identified a red sedan, a delivery van and the person who had once adjusted its tilt, arguing that a system permitted to send license-plate numbers and vehicle descriptions to law enforcement agencies across jurisdictions should not be expected to recognize the limits of its own jurisdiction over a missing pole.

The pole gave no statement. The solar panel requested a recess whenever the lights went out. Neighboring readers then asked for warrants before their stored images could be searched, a demand that closely resembled the one privacy advocates had already been making for human investigators.

By closing time, the camera had been placed in the witness chair, where it turned toward the courtroom window whenever a car passed. Its first requested search was for the license plate of the vehicle that had carried it there.