Florida revokes Flock camera permits on state roads, halts all future approvals

Our Take

Credit where it's due: CBS 12's Matthew Waggle got hold of a memo that most of us never see — the quiet administrative plumbing that either enables or chokes off mass surveillance. FDOT Assistant Secretary Will Watts didn't mince words: pull the cameras within 30 days or the state does it for you, and don't bother applying for new permits because the answer is no. That's not a press release full of privacy platitudes, that's an agency yanking the legal basis out from under hundreds of ALPR installations in one memo.

This matters because the Flock expansion machine has mostly run on local inertia — a police chief gets a demo, a city council rubber-stamps a contract, nobody asks who's auditing the data-sharing agreements. Permits on state rights-of-way were one of the few checkpoints where a bigger authority could actually say no. Florida just proved that checkpoint isn't just theoretical. Whether this sticks, gets narrowed, or gets lobbied into a loophole-riddled 'future approvals process' is the thing to watch over the next month.

If you're in Florida, this is the moment to find out whether your local department's cameras sit on a state road, a county road, or private right-of-way, because that distinction may decide whether this memo touches them at all. Check our map for what's documented near you, and if you want to push your own city council or state legislator before the next Flock contract renewal, our take-action page has the templates.