Some Flock cameras in Jacksonville are being covered with plastic bags
The short version: Jacksonville Flock cameras ordered removed by FDOT are still standing, just hidden under plastic bags, News4JAX reports.
Our Take
Credit to News4JAX for catching what 'compliance' actually looks like in the ALPR business: when the Florida Department of Transportation told Jacksonville to pull Flock cameras off its rights-of-way, the hardware didn't disappear. It got a plastic bag thrown over it. The poles are still standing, the mounts are still bolted down, and the only thing separating 'removed' from 'running' is a trash bag that any city worker — or Flock technician — could rip off in five seconds.
This is exactly the pattern we track at DeFlock: agencies treat removal orders as a formality rather than a deadline, because there's rarely any real penalty for dragging their feet. A bagged camera isn't a dismantled surveillance network, it's a paused one, sitting there waiting for the news cycle to move on so it can quietly come back online. Jacksonville residents should be asking who ordered the bags instead of a teardown, and why a state agency's directive is being treated as optional.
If you want to see what's actually deployed near you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your city not have to be shamed into even a half-measure like this, our take-action page has the tools to push back before the bags go up.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of News4JAX The Local Station, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.