Florida De-Flocked: FDOT revokes permits for Flock cameras used by law enforcement

Our Take

Credit to Action News Jax (CBS47/FOX30) for digging into a story that doesn't get enough airtime: the paperwork behind these cameras. Flock Safety's ALPR units don't just appear on poles by magic — they often need permits to sit in public rights-of-way, and when a state DOT decides a permit doesn't hold up, the cameras have to come down. That's exactly the kind of mundane procedural check that can do more to slow mass surveillance than years of op-eds.

What makes this notable isn't that Florida suddenly had a change of heart about license plate tracking. It's that the system worked the way oversight is supposed to work: an agency reviewed whether law enforcement had actually followed the rules for installing surveillance infrastructure, and found they hadn't. That's a reminder that Flock's rapid buildout across the country has outpaced a lot of basic regulatory housekeeping, and local reporters pulling on these threads are doing real accountability journalism.

If you want to see how many of these cameras are sitting in your own neighborhood, on streets you drive every day, check out our camera map. And if a permit fight like this one is happening in your city, our take-action page has tools to push your local officials to ask the same hard questions Florida's DOT apparently did.