Florida ends permits for Flock cameras on state roads, halting future approvals

Our Take

Credit to WLOS News 13 for getting hold of this memo, because it's a genuinely big deal. When a state DOT tells agencies they have 30 days to pull Flock cameras off state roads or the state will do it for them, that's not a polite suggestion — that's an agency admitting the legal footing for this surveillance network was shakier than vendors and police departments let on. Immediate revocation of previously approved permits is about as blunt a reversal as you'll see from a government bureaucracy.

What this really exposes is how much of the Flock rollout nationwide has depended on a patchwork of informal approvals, right-of-way agreements, and departments simply not asking hard questions before bolting a camera to a pole. Florida's DOT apparently decided that scrutiny was overdue. The fact that an entire state can hit pause on future ALPR permitting shows this fight isn't hopeless — it shows that these systems exist because nobody pushed back, not because they're legally untouchable.

This is exactly the kind of leverage point communities elsewhere should be studying. If you want to know whether these cameras are already watching your commute, check our camera map, and if you want to push your own city or state toward the kind of accountability Florida just forced, our take-action page has the tools to get started.