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DeSantis Administration Shutters Flock Cameras on State Roads Across Florida
September 1, 2026
Amid a growing backlash to license plate reader (LPR) cameras and citing concerns over privacy, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration on Monday moved to shut down the newly ubiquitous technology on state roads.
The cameras, made by Flock Safety and other companies, use artificial intelligence to track suspects and flag speeders. But reports of abuse by police in Florida and around the country have sparked a bipartisan push to rethink their use.
A memo from the Florida Department of Transportation to local law enforcement agencies stated the authority to use the cameras on state roads is being withdrawn.
“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,” the memo from FDOT chief operating officer Will Watts states.
DeSantis himself has soured on the cameras.
“No one has given law enforcement more tools than we have, but they need to be targeted at criminals,” DeSantis told reporters at an event in Jacksonville on Monday. “If they can create a dossier on your movements they would be able to make a fortune in selling that to companies for advertising and product placement.”
DeSantis also raised the specter of the COVID-19 pandemic-era lockdowns as another reason to block the cameras from creating a “surveillance state.”
“I don’t think it’s their intent to do general surveillance, but I will tell you, if we had all this around the country when covid happened you absolutely would have saw those turned on people who were outside of lockdown orders in California,” DeSantis said.
He added that while local sheriffs likely have used the technology effectively, the potential for abuse is too great.
“You also have to say how can this be misused,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think we have really strong penalties at all for that type of misuse.”
According to the memo, local law enforcement agencies that previously received a permit to use the cameras to take them down within 30 days. The memo also states there aren’t going to be any more permits given going forward.
“Further, as of the date of this memorandum, the Department will use its discretionary authority to cease the issuance of all future requests for LPR systems within its jurisdictional authority,” Watts wrote.
by Gray Rohrer, The News Service of Florida
Photos courtesy Flock for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
7 Responses to “DeSantis Administration Shutters Flock Cameras on State Roads Across Florida”
Regarding:
“Those who would trade liberty for safety…”
There is no loss of liberty to be seen on a public highway. Cameras let the observer see through time and distance. Watching someone for personal reasons is illegal stalking and can be punished as such. Watching to see who entered and left a crime scene on a public road during the commission of a crime allows not just the safety of many, it protects potential suspects who were not in the area. It is not doing anything police could not do by hand if we had a few more million of them.
Police are simply abusing their power. Not all but some. If they will abuse this, they will abuse other power. This makes it easy to catch abusers before they do even worse and it clears the others either decent enough or smart enough to not abuse easily identifiable abuse of authority. Another benefit.
But if you want to tie the hands of legitimate public servants trying to protect and serve, such is your decision.
David for better people
Anyone on here calling these “useful tools” are ignorant. Why would you want your every move to be surveyed and just waiting on you to do any little thing for them to come after you? This is a violation of the 4th amendment and should’ve never been allowed to begin with. They all need to GO!
GOOD! Those who would trade liberty for safety deserve neither.
‘They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’
Don’t throw away a useful tool just because criminals misuse it. Punish the criminals.
Good for the criminals.
Now they wont be as easily caught when abducting children or killing people with their privacy.
The blame should be put square on police administration and supervisors. Clearly administration failed to control and restrict access to these valuable crime fighting tools. Allowing the lowest level officers and new hires to enter plate numbers for immediate alerts was a major failure of supervision.