LIVE: Gov. Ron DeSantis says Flock cameras are 'out of control' in Florida privacy push

Our Take

When a Republican governor known for backing law enforcement starts publicly questioning a surveillance vendor, that's a signal worth paying attention to. In this clip, shared by creator Muhammad Abdul Qawee, Gov. Ron DeSantis frames Flock's license plate reader network as having grown beyond reasonable bounds in Florida, and floats the idea of stricter state oversight. We don't have the full transcript or policy details yet, so we're not going to speculate on what any resulting legislation might say. But the fact that this conversation is happening at the governor's level, in a state with one of the densest camera networks in the country, tells you how far this technology has outpaced public debate.

This is the pattern we keep seeing nationwide: cities and counties quietly sign contracts with Flock, cameras go up on highways and neighborhood entrances, and only after the network is fully built do elected officials start asking who's watching the watchers. Florida drivers have been living inside one of the largest ALPR dragnets in the country for years with little public input on retention periods, data sharing, or audit requirements. A governor calling that 'out of control' doesn't fix any of it, but it does put real political weight behind concerns that privacy advocates have been raising all along.

Whatever comes of this, the underlying problem doesn't change: these cameras log the movements of everyday drivers regardless of suspicion, and that data doesn't always stay local. If you want to see how dense the coverage is where you live, check our camera map, and if you want to push back on unchecked expansion in your own town, our take-action page has concrete steps for getting in front of your local council before the next contract gets signed.