Automated license plate reader cameras scanning traffic in Pensacola Beach, Florida. Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Miami Independent
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced that state agencies are removing Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader cameras from state rights-of-way, stepping up his campaign to curb what he called an out-of-control surveillance system spreading throughout the Sunshine State.
“Pull ’em down,” DeSantis told reporters at the press conference following his announcement, noting that all of the Flock Safety cameras on state rights-of-way will be removed by state agencies. The governor said that the cameras, which are used by various state agencies, are being removed following his remarks at Florida International University in Miami earlier in the week regarding the Flock Safety cameras and their use as a mass criminal surveillance system with little to no oversight.
Locally, surveillance on roads across South Florida has been the focus of Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers installed by participating state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies. In this region, state troopers used the system to support the federal immigration sweeps of Operation Tidal Wave. Statewide, Reason magazine reported that more than a third of those arrested had no prior criminal history. 404 Media first reported last spring that Florida wildlife officers were accessing the system using the accounts of other law enforcement agencies, including to run immigration related queries, totaling 38 such looks in a single month, without Flock Safety contracts of their own.
Most Flock Safety cameras are owned by thousands of local police and sheriff’s departments, but DeSantis is asking for an accounting of all the cameras that state agencies have and how they are using them. The governor said he is also looking at New Hampshire’s approach to limiting the placement of such cameras on state property as a model for Florida legislation.
“Surveillance state is not where I want to go. The legislation they attempted to pass – that was stalled, a Bill of Rights related to AI – was excellent. It passed the Senate, it died in the House, largely because the Speaker doesn’t want to do anything about it. So it needs to be taken up by the Legislature and I’m willing to support a bill of rights with respect to surveillance by AI.”
This is an issue that is beginning to manifest in the race for Governor, with Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee to succeed DeSantis as Governor calling for a total halt to new Flock contracts throughout the state. Democratic nominee for Governor, David Jolly, is calling for a requirement of a warrant before any information from these surveillance cameras can be pulled by police. Also, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has initiated a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigation into how Flock Safety collects and disseminates this information throughout the country.
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