Florida becomes first state to ban Flock cameras on state highways

Our Take

Credit to WPBF 25 News for flagging what could be a genuinely significant crack in the ALPR status quo: Florida apparently pulling Flock Safety cameras off state highways. If that holds, it's a rare instance of a state government drawing a line on a surveillance network that has spread almost entirely unchecked, county by county and town by town, with little public debate and even less oversight.

We'd caution readers not to read too much into one state highway carve-out. Flock's business model depends on blanketing local roads, municipal lots, and neighborhood entrances — the state highway system is just one slice of a much bigger network. Even a full ban on state roads wouldn't touch the thousands of cameras already logging plates on city streets and HOA driveways across Florida. The pattern we've seen elsewhere is that bans or restrictions in one jurisdiction often just push the cameras a few hundred feet down the road into local hands.

Still, it matters that a legislature is willing to say no to Flock at all, given how aggressively the company markets itself as indispensable to law enforcement. If you want to see how dense Florida's camera coverage actually is — state highway ban or not — check our map, and if you want to push back on ALPR expansion in your own town, our take-action page has concrete steps.