Florida orders Flock camera off state roads

No more license plate readers on any state roads. That's what the governor ordered this week. You can see many of our state roads here in blue on FDOT's online map, which obviously includes major corridors like Kennedy Boulevard, the Selman Expressway, and I-275. Well that mandate is going to include flock cameras, which have become quite controversial as of late. Some cities and counties have already started to take them down, but as with anything, there are people for and against these flock cameras. FOX 13's Ariel Plascencia tonight joins us from Riverview with more about the company. Well, according to FLOCK's website, the company was founded in 2017 and it was initially focused on providing security solutions for homeowners associations, or HOAs, and we've done stories on local HOAs who have used them. Take a look. This is the website for Paddock Oaks in Riverview, and right on their homepage is a note about FLOCK safety cameras that have been installed at the community's entrance. In fact, we covered this back in 2019 when the community first put them in. According to the neighborhood's website, these cameras do not watch their community. Instead, they serve as a security system to capture footage and data, which can be shared with police in the event a crime occurs. And the Tampa Police Department says that's exactly what they use them for. In new data released today, the department said automated license plate readers have helped make over 600 arrests and located 14 missing people in five years. And in one example they gave from this year, Tampa Police said these cameras helped track down a suspect vehicle connected to a shooting that injured two teens. However, as ordered by the governor, TPD said that it will remove 17 license plate readers that are on state roads within the next 30 days and that they will also monitor use of license plate readers so that officers do not misuse them. In Hillsborough County, Ariel Vicencia, I'll send it back to you. All right, Ariel. Thanks much. So Sheriff Grady Judd has also begun the process of removing license plate readers from state roads all throughout Polk County, but in an 11-minute video that he posted today, he stood by the technology, calling it the best single tool he's seen in public safety. There are license plate readers that read your tag number when you're on the toll road. It knows where you're going. There's red light cameras that read your tag number. They know where you're going. There's school speed cameras that read your tag number. They know where you're going. So the bottom line is we've picked out flock, this one series of cameras that's the least invasive of all of them, does absolutely nothing to the law-abiding citizen. That's Sheriff Grady Judd, of course, and he agrees guardrails need to be in place to ensure privacy and accountability, and he vowed to work with the Sheriff's Association to make that happen.