Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Florida takes action against Flock cameras

Huh:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Department of Transportation on Monday revoked all existing permits for automated license plate readers installed by local law enforcement in state highway rights-of-way and said it will stop approving any new installations, citing an “exponential increase” in deployments, reports of misuse, data privacy concerns and “surveillance schemes.”

The Engineering and Operations Memorandum, signed by Will Watts, P.E., FDOT’s chief operating officer and assistant secretary, directs local agencies to remove the devices within 30 days. If they do not, the department said it will take them down. FDOT reserved the right to immediately remove any unit that poses a safety hazard.

From my perspective, the biggest immediate problem with the Flock system is that it has a very weak authentication and audit system.  This likely makes abuse of the system hard to find.  And given the widespread abuse that has been reported, that makes you wonder just how much abuse is happening.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, Flock.  I mean, after all - if you don't have anything to hide, you don't have anything to worry about, amirite? 

Well done, FLDOT.