Florida Police Find 14 Unauthorized Flock Cameras, 11 With Unknown Operators
St. Lucie County, Florida, police have found 14 unauthorized Flock license plate reader cameras along county roads, three of them claimed by the local sheriff's office and 11 with no known operator. Owners have 30 days to come forward.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office claimed three of the 14 devices, according to Ars Technica. Those three had been installed without the necessary permits, but the agency responsible for them could at least be traced. For the remaining 11, county authorities have not established who put them up or whether they are still recording.
County officials have given the owners 30 days to come forward and take the cameras down, and have said the devices may be covered with plastic bags in the meantime.
The discovery comes after Florida decided to take Flock cameras out of use on highways across the state. Flock has itself installed cameras without completing the required paperwork in the past; a 2024 incident was reported by Forbes. A Flock spokesperson said the company has already contacted St. Lucie County officials in an effort to resolve the question of who owns the unclaimed devices as quickly as possible.
Residents have reacted with alarm. Ty Grant told the Washington Post that the 11 unaccounted-for Flock cameras had left him feeling "very unsafe." Local shop owner Todd Richter said it was imperative that the camera operators be revealed.
Discussion on Reddit followed a similar line, with posters declaring it was "time for the chainsaws" and speculating that foreign nations could be behind the cameras installed without permits. One widely repeated suggestion was to "cut it down, see who comes complaining."
Even before the current discovery, the data-collection capabilities of license plate readers had drawn suspicion from many citizens in the county, including at times when the identity of the agency accessing the footage was known.
For at least the next 30 days, St. Lucie County officials appear determined to give the unidentified operators the opportunity to come forward and reclaim their hardware before it is removed.
Editor's Summary Florida authorities have found 14 Flock license plate reader cameras installed without permits along St. Lucie County roads, three belonging to the county sheriff's office and 11 whose operators remain unknown. Owners have 30 days to identify themselves and remove the devices, a period during which the cameras may be covered but left in place. The discovery follows Florida's move to stop using Flock cameras on state highways and adds to scrutiny of how license plate reader data is collected and accessed.