Florida starts pulling the plug on license plate readers, including Flock cameras
The short version: Florida's DOT ordered local police to rip ALPRs, including Flock cameras, off state roadways — a rare case of a state agency actually enforcing limits on this surveillance sprawl.
Our Take
Credit to 11Alive for catching this one: Florida's Department of Transportation reportedly told local law enforcement agencies to pull license plate readers off state rights-of-way, Flock Safety cameras included. If that holds, it's a notable crack in the usual story we tell here — departments bolting these cameras to every pole they can find with little oversight and even less public input.
We don't have the full memo or the legal reasoning FDOT is leaning on, so we won't pretend to know how far this goes or whether it survives the inevitable pushback from police agencies and Flock itself. But the fact that a state transportation authority is the one drawing a line, rather than a legislature or court, says something about how far ahead of the law this technology has been allowed to run. Permitting and right-of-way rules are often the only paperwork trail these camera deployments ever had.
This is exactly the kind of local fight that decides whether ALPR networks keep expanding unchecked or start facing real friction. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your roads in Florida and beyond, and if you want to push back where you live, our take-action page has the tools to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of 11Alive, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.