The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) issued a memorandum this Monday ordering the removal of automated license plate readers installed on state rights-of-way, giving law enforcement agencies a 30-day deadline 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 called the expansion of these cameras an out-of-control problem. “These cameras, the license plate readers, I believe are out of control,” stated the governor last Wednesday during an event in Miami.
DeSantis warned that he did not want to see Florida turned into a "surveillance state" and urged the state legislature to set clear legal limits on the use of this technology, citing New Hampshire as a model, where captured data is deleted within three minutes unless it is connected to an arrest, citation, or missing persons case.
Several sheriff's offices immediately responded to the FDOT memorandum announcing the shutdown or removal of their systems. Those in Jacksonville, Putnam County, Volusia County, and Clay County were the first to speak out.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was emphatic: “Effective immediately, we are turning off the license plate readers in Volusia County.”
The Sheriff of Clay County, 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 highways of the State Highway System, not to municipal roads, county roads, or private properties, where the cameras may continue to operate unless local governments decide 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 the date, time, and exact location, storing everything in a cloud database. The scale of the deployment in Florida is considerable: according to data from the independent DeFlock map, over a thousand Flock cameras were operational in the southern part of the state, with 863 in Broward County and 372 in Miami-Dade.
Although various agencies defend the technology, arguing that it has been instrumental in solving crimes, locating missing persons, and recovering 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 publication of this note, agencies in South Florida, including those in Miami-Dade and Broward, had not publicly responded regarding whether they would comply with the state directive.
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