A Flock Wisconsin marijuana stop in April 2025 shows how license-plate-reader records can turn a day’s driving into a police timeline. According to a Wisconsin criminal complaint described by 404 Media, Brown County deputies followed Edward Abrams-Phillips’ vehicle through Flock camera hits as it went from Wisconsin into Michigan, where marijuana is legal, then returned to Wisconsin.
The complaint reportedly said earlier Flock results indicated that the vehicle went to Michigan frequently. It called Michigan a marijuana “source state” because marijuana is legal there. That is an officer’s stated rationale in the complaint, not evidence in the supplied record that Abrams-Phillips bought marijuana during this trip.
At about 3:56 p.m., the complaint said, the vehicle appeared in Flock data heading south on Interstate 41 toward Green Bay. Deputies coordinated to intercept it, and Deputy Kowalski stopped the vehicle after identifying the driver as matching Abrams-Phillips’ description, according to 404 Media’s account of the filing.
The complaint said an officer then smelled what he believed was raw marijuana inside the vehicle. Abrams-Phillips was arrested. Court records reviewed by 404 Media show that a bail-jumping count was dismissed and that he was found guilty only of marijuana possession in this case. The report said he had been wanted on a bail-jumping allegation connected to domestic-violence charges; it does not provide further disposition details for those underlying allegations.
What did Flock data show in the Wisconsin marijuana stop?
The complaint, as reported by 404 Media, describes camera hits showing the vehicle traveling north from Marinette, Wisconsin, into Michigan and later south toward Green Bay. It also cites prior hits to assert a pattern of Michigan travel. The records establish the complaint’s account of what deputies said they saw in the system; they do not resolve whether the stop or subsequent search was lawful.
404 Media characterized the travel analysis as an effort to build a pretext for a marijuana search. That characterization is not a judicial finding in the material available here, and the complaint also cited the driver identification and the alleged marijuana odor.
What do Flock license-plate readers collect?
Flock’s main product records vehicle identifiers including the plate, make, model, color, time and location, PBS reported. The company’s cameras can also capture details such as bumper stickers and damage. Flock representative Josh Thomas told PBS that the records are kept in a searchable cloud database for 30 days, and PBS reported that search data can be shared with police agencies nationwide.
That scope is the policy problem lurking behind an otherwise routine traffic-stop record. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says Flock encourages broad data sharing and that agencies can search thousands of networks across the country. Civil-liberties groups, including EFF, argue that searches of such databases should require warrants. That remains an advocacy position, rather than a ruling in Abrams-Phillips’ case.
Brown County Sheriff’s Department audit reports for April 26, 2025 show dozens of Flock searches, often spanning thousands of cameras, according to 404 Media. The available reporting does not identify which of those searches were specifically tied to Abrams-Phillips’ vehicle.
This story draws on original reporting from 404 Media.
