The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) issued a memorandum this Monday ordering the removal of automatic license plate readers installed on state right-of-ways, giving law enforcement agencies a period of 30 days to dismantle the devices or face direct removal by the department itself.
The measure, reported by Telemundo 51, comes five days after Governor Ron DeSantis publicly labeled the expansion of these cameras as an out-of-control issue. "These cameras, the license plate readers, I think are out of control," the governor stated last Wednesday during an event in Miami.
DeSantis warned that he did not want to see Florida turn into a "surveillance state" and urged the state legislature to establish clear legal limits on the use of this technology, pointing to New Hampshire as a model, where captured data is deleted within three minutes unless it is linked to an arrest, citation, or missing person case.
Several sheriff's offices responded immediately to the FDOT memo announcing the shutdown or removal of their systems. The offices in Jacksonville, Putnam County, Volusia County, and Clay County were the first to speak out.
The Volusia County Sheriff's Office was unequivocal: "Effective immediately, we are shutting down the license plate readers in Volusia County."
The Clay County Sheriff, Michelle Cook, chose a more cautious tone: "Our commitment to maintaining a safe community where families and businesses can thrive remains our priority."
The FDOT order applies exclusively to the State Highway System roads, not to municipal roads, county roads, or private properties, where cameras may continue to operate unless local governments choose to act separately. The department also announced that it will stop issuing future permits for these systems within its jurisdiction.
The devices in question are primarily cameras from the company Flock Safety, which capture license plates, make, model, color, and body type of each vehicle, along with date, time, and exact location, storing all of this in a cloud-based database. The scale of the deployment in Florida is considerable: according to data from the independent DeFlock map, more than a thousand Flock cameras were operating in the southern part of the state, with 863 in Broward County and 372 in Miami-Dade.
Although various agencies defend the technology by arguing that it has been used to solve crimes, locate missing persons, and recover stolen property, the debate over privacy has intensified following revelations that the Institute for Justice documented at least 24 cases in which agents used the Flock network to track ex-partners or other individuals without legal justification.
As of the closure of this report, agencies in South Florida, including those in Miami-Dade and Broward, had not publicly responded regarding whether they would comply with the state directive.
Filed under: