Schmidt v. Norfolk | American Civil Liberties Union
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Court Cases
Schmidt v. Norfolk
Privacy & Technology
Location:<br>Virginia
Status: Ongoing
Last Update: April 20, 2026
What's at Stake
Whether Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems violate individuals’ expectations of privacy under the Fourth Amendment.
Summary
On April 20, 2026, the ACLU, ACLU of Virginia, and Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case challenging the Norfolk, Virginia police department’s use of Flock ALPRs to surveil the movements of drivers around the city.
Our brief lays out how these ALPR systems collect significant amounts of sensitive location data, including from individuals not suspected of any crime, and aggregates these location points into...