Backlash against Flock Safety license plate readers came to a head on Monday in Central Florida and statewide.
The cameras have attracted controversy in recent years as some police officers have used the services to stalk ex-partners. And errors in Flock Safety’s character recognition software has led to wrongful arrests nationwide, including the arrest and later release of a Sanford woman based on a Flock match.
On Monday, the Florida Department of Transportation announced that it would revoke permits for license plate readers on state right-of-ways.
And during a work session Monday night, the Oviedo City Council agreed to prematurely end the city’s five-year contract with Flock Safety, citing privacy and security concerns.
State criticisms
FDOT announced its decision in a memorandum.
“While Florida law limits the issuance of permits for LPR systems to law enforcement agencies, the recent exponential increase in deployments along our roadways, coupled with concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life,” FDOT Assistant Secretary Will Watts wrote in the memo.
Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized Flock cameras in a statement on Friday. He said the use of license plate readers in Florida was “out of control.” .
Limits on Flock and other surveillance-adjacent technology were a key feature of DeSantis’s digital bill of rights proposed for a legislative session earlier this year, but it didn’t pass.
Oviedo work session
At the Oviedo City Council’s work session, public comment focused on the service’s potential for misuse or abuse — citing numerous examples nationally of police officers using Flock’s database to stalk ex-partners — and how its network of location data could be used to track citizens.
Karl Bach, a spokesman for Flock, clarified to the council that Flock’s cameras transmit data to its own servers, though its customers retain sole ownership of that data unless they agree to give other agencies access to it for their own investigations.
Depending on the needs of its customers, Flock will automatically delete photos from its servers after 30 days, scrambling and wiping the data from its records, Bach said.
That retention period can be longer, too, Bach explained. He said one community asked Flock to retain records for a year before deleting them, because the high prevalence of vacation homes there means residents may not find out about a break-in until months after the fact.
Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek was encouraged by some of Bach’s explanations, especially his description of how the service purges records securely. But she wasn’t convinced to maintain the contract.
“I think he was doing the best he could, and I don't know if he doesn't have the technical expertise about how the software is designed, or if he was trying to beat around the bush, but there were some of the answers given that just, they didn't scratch that itch,” she said.
Oviedo had one month left in the first fiscal year of its contract with Flock Safety. Following the council’s decision, the police department will begin taking down the cameras immediately. It will not be reimbursed for the remaining month, which it already paid for.
‘An investigative tool’
Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman said he was “disappointed” by the council’s conclusion but understood it in the context of constituent concerns.
Coleman was a proponent of Flock’s recognition services. Since the cameras went online in February, they had been helpful in solving thefts.
He noted that it helped his department locate someone in a mental health crisis and prevent her from taking her own life.
The city’s brief use of the cameras means the decision won’t disrupt investigations, he said.
“It's not going to be a huge shift. It just will be [an] investigative tool that we won't have access to,” Coleman said. “But we'll go back doing police work like we've always done it.”
