Governor Ron DeSantis is railing against license plate readers, like Flock cameras, that use AI technology to conduct surveys in support of law enforcement.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the technology is supposed to be used for things like finding stolen vehicles, wanted persons, missing and or endangered children or adults, and persons who have committed serious and violent crimes.
The FDLE said Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Technology, also known as ALPR “can help detectives develop and pursue leads in criminal investigations by assisting in locating suspects, witnesses, and victims by identifying vehicles in the vicinity at the time of the crime.
But the cameras have faced criticism from some as an invasion of privacy and a system of mass surveillance. One of the ALPR systems includes Flock cameras. One website, known as DeFlock, identifies Flock cameras across the nation with volunteers leading the surveillance mapping.
“I think it's out of control,” Governor Ron DeSantis said of the technology. He doesn’t want to see Florida become a surveillance state with these systems.
“I don't want to be in a situation where these tech companies, a handful of tech companies, know everything about you and know where you're going,” DeSantis said. “I know they collect a lot as it is, but I think it's going to get a lot worse unless we have some protections for the people in Florida.”
DeSantis said an AI Bill of rights that he supported was meant to protect residents from systems like this. The bill passed in the Florida Senate last session, but that bill did not advance through the House.
“I think people are right to be concerned, and I think you got to have protections for people,” DeSantis said. “But go after criminals, great, let's all do that. But surveilling, just regular Floridians' movements and how that data is used, that's a bird of a different feather.”
In a statement addressing some of the privacy concerns and rumors about the ALPR systems, Flock said that “when an agency conducts a search in the Flock system, whether only on their own cameras or on shared cameras, a ‘search reason’ is required, every time. Flock provides options for a drop-down menu of search reasons corresponding to specific use cases, and a free text field for a case number. Agencies should prescribe, in their LPR policies, how users should populate that search field.”
