Okaloosa County will remove FLOCK cameras from state and county roads after the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) issued a memorandum today revoking local law enforcement’s permits to use License Plate Recognition (LPR) technologies.
According to the memorandum, “all LPR-related … approvals issued by the Department to a local law enforcement agency are hereby revoked and must be removed by the permittee within 30 days.”
FDOT said “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” prompted the order to remove LPR cameras from Florida roads.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office released a statement pledging to comply with FDOT’s memorandum.
“From the very start of this discussion, I said that if a judge ruled these cameras are unconstitutional, or the governor determined they violated the law, we would certainly comply,” Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said. “Though LPR technology has not been ruled unconstitutional, the FDOT Memorandum eliminates our ability to use them.”
Aden said losing LPR cameras is “disappointing from a public safety standpoint.”
Crestview resident and privacy activist Andrew Burke said he’d like to extend an “olive branch” to Aden.
“I do believe in my heart that he had no clue what he was getting into when Flock first started,” he said. “I don’t think they had any idea what it was going to become, what it was morphing into. And I agree, it’s probably an awesome tool for them. But look what has happened.”
Burke said the order to remove Flock cameras in Florida shows that real change happens when communities work together.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw something so bipartisan locally. … There’s people that are on a completely different spectrum of politics than me and we absolutely agree [on Flock cameras]. I can’t think of anyone that has ever bonded so many people who disagree than Flock cameras.”
