Fort Myers Beach awaits removal of Flock Safety cameras

Our Take

Credit to Gulf Coast News for catching something we see over and over in this fight: the gap between a program getting "deactivated" and the hardware actually leaving town. A dead camera pole is still a camera pole — it's still collecting dust, still a line item nobody's accountable for, and still a visible reminder that the infrastructure of mass surveillance doesn't just evaporate when a contract lapses or a council vote goes the other way. Fort Myers Beach residents who thought the issue was settled are learning that "off" and "gone" are two very different promises.

This is exactly why we tell communities to get removal timelines, decommissioning language, and equipment-disposal terms written into any Flock agreement from the start — not negotiated after the fact when a company has little incentive to send a truck out for a pole that's no longer generating revenue. Divided residents are also a predictable outcome: some see an idle camera as low-risk, others see unfinished business and a system that could be flipped back on with a policy change and a software update. Neither side should have to guess.

If your town has Flock gear up, active or not, check our camera map to see what's been documented nearby, and if you want to push your local officials toward real accountability — including hard deadlines for removal — our take-action page has the tools to get started.