Florida ends permits for Flock cameras on state roads, halting future approvals
The short version: Florida's DOT just yanked every ALPR permit on state roads and gave agencies 30 days to pull Flock cameras down or lose them — a rare, real win against the surveillance dragnet.
Our Take
Credit to WSBT-TV for surfacing this memo, because it's the kind of bureaucratic paperwork that actually matters more than most press conferences. Florida DOT Assistant Secretary Will Watts didn't mince words: permits revoked, 30 days to remove, no new approvals going forward. That's not a study, not a task force, not a 'pause pending review.' That's a state agency admitting these cameras never should have been bolted onto public right-of-way in the first place.
What makes this notable is the mechanism. Flock's whole business model depends on quietly colonizing infrastructure — utility poles, highway shoulders, intersections — one local contract at a time, with almost no public debate about whether a state DOT ever signed off on turning its roads into chokepoints for a private surveillance network. When the agency that actually owns the asphalt says 'we never approved this the way you think we did,' it exposes how much of this rollout has been running on assumed authority rather than real oversight. Other states should be asking their own DOTs the same question right now.
One memo in one state doesn't dismantle a nationwide network of cameras logging plates and movements for law enforcement, ICE, and whoever buys access down the line. Check our camera map to see what's installed near you, and if your state hasn't had this conversation yet, use our take-action resources to start it.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WSBT-TV, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.