Chrisanna Elser received a criminal summons for a $25 porch package theft she did not commit, setting off a legal battle over automated license plate reader surveillance. The accusation relied entirely on a Flock Safety camera hit that placed her truck near the scene in Bow Mar, Colorado. When Sergeant Jamie Milliman arrived at her door with the paperwork, he declared the case a lock with zero doubt. Elser insisted it was not her, but the officer refused to show his video evidence unless she went to court.
The incident unraveled as Elser gathered robust digital evidence proving her innocence. Onboard cameras in her Rivian, GPS logs, her phone's location history, and a tailor's surveillance footage showed she was getting fitted for a gown over a quarter mile away at the exact time of the theft. Furthermore, doorbell video of the actual suspect depicted a woman fleeing on foot who never entered a vehicle. Despite Elser and her husband contacting town officials repeatedly, local police initially refused to review the exonerating material. Days later, Chief Bret Cottrell reviewed the evidence letter sent by Elser and officially voided the summons.
The federal class-action lawsuit targets Flock Group alongside the towns of Columbine Valley and Bow Mar, Sergeant Milliman, and Chief Cottrell. The legal filing argues that Flock acted jointly with the municipalities, accusing the company of intrusion upon seclusion, negligence, and negligent design for failing to require warrants, case numbers, or supervisor sign-offs for plate searches. Additional claims include Fourth Amendment violations over warrantless location history searches and malicious prosecution. Elser is seeking court orders requiring the deletion of retained location data, mandatory warrant and supervisor approvals for future searches, and strict limits on data retention.
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