James Fishback: Florida's Surveillance State - Ban Flock Cameras NOW! #florida #fishback

Our Take

Credit to Nik and Colten for giving James Fishback room to make a blunt case against Flock Safety's camera network on their show. Whatever you think of him as a candidate, the fact that banning ALPRs is now a talking point in a Florida gubernatorial race says a lot about how far this issue has traveled in a short time. A few years ago, Flock was a quiet vendor selling to small-town police departments. Now it's campaign fodder.

That shift matters because it means lawmakers are starting to feel pressure from constituents who've noticed the cameras on their street corners and asked who's watching the data, who can query it, and why a private company is holding years of their movements. We don't know every detail of what Fishback proposes or how serious the legislative path is, but the broader point stands: these systems were rolled out with almost no public debate, and now the debate is catching up.

Florida already has a dense thicket of Flock cameras, and residents who want to see what's tracking them in their own neighborhood can check our camera map. If you'd rather do something about it than just watch politicians argue, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the local level, where most of these contracts actually get signed.