Amid growing privacy concerns over Flock cameras, a Texas man has asked a federal appeals court to toss out his armed robbery conviction and 60-year prison sentence, arguing that the AI-powered camera system gives law enforcement more surveillance power than the Constitution allows.

Police used Flock cameras to link Charles Brownlee to five armed robberies across several Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs in 2024 by compiling a  pattern of life  that traced his travels along North Texas roads monitored by Flock's vehicle-scanning devices.


The data gathered is so extensive and invasive that police should be required to obtain a search warrant, approved by a judge, before rifling through Flock data, Brownlee's lawyers argue.

 No mortal human has ever possessed  such an ability to effortlessly and immediately reconstruct any person's movements, Brownlee lawyer Matthew Wright told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during oral arguments on Oct. 5.

 I'm not sure that the full capabilities of these systems have been either revealed or litigated,  Wright told the three-judge panel in New Orleans.

Flock's software logs every vehicle that passes any of the estimated 13,000 cameras in Texas, giving law enforcement access to a powerful tracking system. The devices are a hotly contested new tool that police praise as equivalent to DNA testing in its ability to revolutionize policing and improve public safety.

Before his trial, Brownlee asked the federal judge to block prosecutors from using the Flock data as evidence, arguing his vehicle was unlawfully tracked without a search warrant. U.S. District Judge Terry Means declined, Brownlee was convicted and defense lawyers responded by asking the 5th Circuit Court to set aside his verdict.

 Flock's surveillance database indiscriminately collects a vast trove of locational data about Americans who drive or ride in cars,  Brownlee's lawyers told the 5th Circuit Court in a legal brief.  By capturing, storing, retrieving, and indexing this data, Flock gives police the power to find almost anyone and reconstruct their movements. 

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