St. Petersburg to discuss the use of Flock Cameras around the city in today's council meeting

Our Take

Credit to 10 Tampa Bay News for flagging that St. Petersburg's council is putting Flock cameras on the agenda. These meetings matter more than they look — once a city signs a Flock contract, the cameras tend to multiply quietly, with little public debate after the fact. A single afternoon agenda item is often the only real window residents get to ask hard questions about cost, data sharing, and who gets access to the scans of their daily movements.

What usually gets lost in these discussions is the scale of what's being approved. Flock's network isn't just a few cameras at trouble spots — it's a searchable database of where every plate goes, shared across agencies and sometimes states, with retention and audit policies that vary by jurisdiction and aren't always enforced. St. Petersburg wouldn't be the first city to approve a pilot program that quietly expands year over year.

If you're in the Tampa Bay area, now is the time to find out what's already been deployed nearby and show up before the vote, not after. Check our camera map to see what's tracked in your area, and visit take-action for tools to push back before St. Pete becomes another dot on the grid.