Florida bans Flock and other license plate readers from state highways

Florida’s state transportation office revoked the ability of local police to put license plate readers on state highways.

Florida’s state transportation office on Monday revoked the ability of local police to put license plate readers on state highways, as a nationwide backlash continued to gain steam against Flock Safety and other makers of surveillance cameras.

Will Watts, the chief operating officer of the Florida Department of Transportation, informed local law enforcement agencies in a one-page memo that the department was revoking all previously issued approvals for license plate readers (LPRs) in state “rights-of-way,” or the strip of land that’s next to or part of a state road.

Watts cited a “recent exponential increase” in deployments of law enforcement cameras, as well as “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” that he said merit immediate action “to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”

Automatic license plate cameras are mounted to surveil roads throughout the United States, recording which vehicles pass by and when, often with the goal of catching criminal suspects or developing leads. The technology has been around since the 1970s but has spread widely in the past few years as the software has improved and the cost of hardware has fallen. Flock provides a network to customers that allows law enforcement groups from across the country to share footage from their cameras with other agencies and departments, prompting concerns about abuse.

The memo fulfills a vow from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who last week said that surveillance had gone too far.