Florida bans Flock and other license plate readers from state highways as backlash grows

Florida’s state transportation office on Monday revoked the ability of local police to put license plate readers on state highways, as a nationwide backlash continued to gain steam against Flock Safety and other makers of surveillance cameras.Will Watts, the chief operating officer of the Florida Department of Transportation, informed local law enforcement agencies in a one-page memo that the department was revoking all previously issued approvals for license plate readers (LPRs) in state “rights-of-way,” or the strip of land that’s next to or part of a state road.Watts cited a “recent exponential increase” in deployments of law enforcement cameras, as well as “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” that he said merit immediate action “to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”Automatic license plate cameras are mounted to surveil roads throughout the United States, recording which vehicles pass by and when, often with the goal of catching criminal suspects or developing leads. The technology has been around since the 1970s but has spread widely in the past few years as the software has improved and the cost of hardware has fallen. Flock provides a network to customers that allows law enforcement groups from across the country to share footage from their cameras with other agencies and departments, prompting concerns about abuse.The memo fulfills a vow from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who last week said that surveillance had gone too far.“We’re gonna clear the state right-of-ways,” he said Friday on the Real America’s Voice podcast.“These cameras that are out there now — who’s to say they’re only doing the license plate?” he said. “Now, they say that. I think it’s capturing people in their cars. I think it’s capturing way more information than they’re letting on. And you’ve seen the abuse.”Florida is not alone. Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered a halt to state funding for Flock cameras, according to The Texas Tribune, and the issue has come up in midterm election campaigns. More than 100 local governments have cancelled or not renewed their LPR contracts since the beginning of last year, according to the Institute for Justice, an advocacy group in Virginia that says the technology is unconstitutional.Monday’s order did not affect cameras on private property or on local rights-of-way — which together is 98% of surveillance cameras, DeSantis said — but some localities in Florida said they were following suit.The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said it would discontinue the use of license plate reader technology throughout its jurisdiction, Duval County, “effective immediately” even as it called the technology “an enormously valuable investigative tool.” The county, which includes Jacksonville, has 1 million residents.Flock Safety, which in recent years has helped to popularize license plate readers and other camera technology for police departments, said that a ban was the wrong reaction.“Flock’s technology is an important public safety tool for law enforcement agencies across Florida, helping officers solve serious crimes, find missing people, recover stolen vehicles, and support safer communities,” the company said in a statement.“In just the last few weeks in Florida, the technology was used to find missing children, led to the arrest of a murder suspect, and assisted in solving numerous other crimes,” it said, pointing to local news coverage of its cameras’ impact.“Rather than banning a critical public safety tool, we support thoughtful legislation and strong privacy, transparency, and accountability guardrails that ensure technology is used responsibly while preserving law enforcement’s ability to use effective tools to keep people safe,” the company said.The company has announced changes in recent weeks in response to privacy concerns, including shrinking the period for how long it holds people’s movement data by default from one month to one week. It also has said it will do more to lock out users whose searches display “abnormal activity.” Last week, a Kentucky police officer was arrested after authorities said he used the Flock system more than 2,000 times to track his ex-girlfriend.NBC News has identified 50 areas across the country where Flock cameras have been damaged, spray-painted, smashed or cut down in acts of vandalism since 2024, while some drivers have sued Flock and organized themselves into a proposed class action.