A Wichita resident has filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing that its network of automated license-plate readers (ALPRs) constitutes unconstitutional surveillance.
The case could have national implications for how cities use such technology.
Mason Grimmett filed the lawsuit on July 30, represented by the Kansas Justice Institute.
He claims that Wichita's roughly 200 Flock Safety cameras photograph and catalog every passing vehicle without a warrant, probable cause, or judicial oversight.
Grimmett is not seeking a settlement.
Instead, he wants the court to declare the program unconstitutional under Section 15 of the Kansas Bill of Rights and order the cameras removed.
He describes himself as “trapped” in an “indiscriminate and warrantless dragnet surveillance of anyone, and everyone, driving in the City of Wichita.”
A Ruling With National Stakes
The verdict in this case could significantly impact the ALPR debate.
A win for Grimmett would likely force Wichita to shut off its cameras and could provide a legal roadmap for challenging similar systems in other states.
Cities that installed cameras with little public debate might suddenly face legal challenges over mass vehicle surveillance.
The lawsuit, first reported by KSN, says Wichita's data can be accessed by virtually every city police officer and hundreds of outside law-enforcement agencies.
The city reportedly cannot track where the information goes once another agency receives it.
This means Wichita may not know who is searching its data, why they are searching it, or whether the information is being shared again.
It also cannot verify that every search is lawful.
If Grimmett loses, the case could at least cement ALPR use in Kansas, if not elsewhere, due to precedent.
The complaint also cites an incident where an innocent couple was stopped multiple times, including once at gunpoint, after the system wrongly flagged their minivan as a stolen pickup truck.
The lawsuit references an older National Institute of Justice report that found 80–85% accuracy was typical for ALPR systems in real-world deployments.
Applied to Wichita's 904,603 recorded searches over a 32-day period, that could theoretically mean hundreds of thousands of incorrect results.
However, that is an extrapolation, not a citywide audit, and it is not Flock admitting its cameras are wrong 20% of the time.
There have been many examples of ALPRs getting things wrong, with police failing to catch the issue, leading to negative consequences.
The constitutional argument may ultimately matter more than the math.
Grimmett's attorneys compare the network to a GPS tracker, arguing that license plates have been transformed from simple registration tags into tools capable of reconstructing a person's movements.
If a judge agrees, Wichita may not be the last city forced to explain why it believes tracking everyone is an acceptable price for catching a few people.
