FCSO Flock Cameras no longer in operation

Our Take

When a sheriff's office quietly powers down its Flock network, that's news — and credit to WMBB News 13 for getting Bay County on record about it. These shutdowns don't happen often, and when they do, the public deserves to know why: budget cuts, contract disputes, public pressure, or something else entirely. The "why" matters because it tells other communities what actually works to get this surveillance infrastructure removed.

But "no longer in operation" isn't the same as "gone." Cameras can sit dormant on poles, contracts can auto-renew, and data already collected doesn't just vanish because the feed went dark. Residents in Bay County should be asking pointed questions: Is this permanent? Was retained license plate data purged? And is FCSO quietly shopping for a different vendor to fill the gap?

Wins like this are exactly why constant local pressure works — sheriffs and city councils respond to scrutiny, not silence. Check our camera map to see what's still running near you, and if you want to push your own local agency toward transparency or shutdown, our take action page has the tools to get started.