Flock Privacy: Sheriff Hardwick, Chief Cronin, and Deborah Campbell (Deflock St. Johns County)

Our Take

Credit to Sean Carpenter and the Republican Liberty Caucus for putting Sheriff Hardwick, Chief Cronin, and local organizer Deborah Campbell in the same room for a civil, on-the-record conversation about Flock cameras in St. Johns County. That kind of direct exchange is rare — most of the time, officials announce these systems and residents find out after the fact. The fact that this discussion happened at all is a small win for transparency, and it's worth watching for anyone trying to understand how local law enforcement actually talks about ALPRs when pressed in public.

What stands out is the format itself: a sheriff and a chief fielding questions from a privacy advocate rather than a friendly press release. That's exactly the kind of accountability mass surveillance infrastructure rarely gets, since Flock's network expands quietly through vendor contracts and grant money, often without meaningful public debate. Deborah Campbell's work pushing for this conversation is the model other counties should be following — know your local deployment before it's a done deal, not after.

If you're in St. Johns County or anywhere else wondering how many of these cameras are already watching your commute, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and visit our take-action page for ways to start asking your own officials the same hard questions.