Florida’s state transportation workplace on Monday revoked the power of native police to place license plate readers on state highways, as a nationwide backlash continued to realize steam towards Flock Safety and other makers of surveillance cameras.
Will Watts, the chief working officer of the Florida Department of Transportation, knowledgeable native regulation enforcement businesses in a one-page memo that the division was revoking all beforehand issued approvals for license plate readers (LPRs) in state “rights-of-way,” or the strip of land that’s subsequent to or a part of a state street.
Watts cited a “recent exponential increase” in deployments of regulation enforcement cameras, in addition to “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” that he stated benefit speedy motion “to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”
Automatic license plate cameras are mounted to surveil roads all through the United States, recording which automobiles cross by and when, typically with the purpose of catching prison suspects or creating leads. The expertise has been round for the reason that Seventies however has unfold extensively up to now few years because the software program has improved and the price of {hardware} has fallen. Flock gives a community to clients that permits regulation enforcement teams from throughout the nation to share footage from their cameras with other businesses and departments, prompting considerations about abuse.
The memo fulfills a vow from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who final week stated that surveillance had gone too far.
“We’re gonna clear the state right-of-ways,” he stated 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 stated. “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 will not be alone. Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered a halt to state funding for Flock cameras, based on The Texas Tribune, and the difficulty has come up in midterm election campaigns. More than 100 native governments have canceled or not renewed their LPR contracts for the reason that starting of final yr, based on the Institute for Justice, an advocacy group in Virginia that claims the expertise is unconstitutional.
Monday’s order didn’t have an effect on cameras on non-public property or on native rights-of-way — the place 98% of the surveillance cameras are positioned, DeSantis stated — however some localities in Florida stated they had been following swimsuit.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office stated it would discontinue the usage of license plate reader expertise all through its jurisdiction, Duval County, “effective immediately” even because it known as the expertise “an enormously valuable investigative tool.” The county, which incorporates Jacksonville, has 1 million residents.
Flock Safety, which lately has helped to popularize license plate readers and other digital camera expertise for police departments, stated {that a} ban was the improper response.
“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 corporate stated in a press release.
“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 stated, pointing to local news coverage of its cameras’ impression.
“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 corporate stated.
The firm has announced changes in latest weeks in response to privateness considerations, together with shrinking the interval for the way lengthy it holds folks’s motion information by default from one month to at least one week. It additionally has stated it’s going to do extra to lock out customers whose searches show “abnormal activity.”
Last week, a Kentucky police officer was arrested after authorities stated he used the Flock system more than 2,000 times to trace his ex-girlfriend.
NBC News has recognized 50 areas across the country the place Flock cameras have been broken, spray-painted, smashed or minimize down in acts of vandalism since 2024, whereas some drivers have sued Flock and organized themselves right into a proposed class motion.