The Destin City Council voted Tuesday to direct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance that would require a council vote before license plate reader cameras can be installed on city right-of-ways or city properties.
- The action came during the council’s Sept. 8 regular meeting, after Councilman Kevin Schmidt introduced a motion to block the use of the cameras. The discussion followed a statewide order from the Florida Department of Transportation and Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden’s subsequent decision to cancel the agency’s contract with Flock Safety and remove all of the company’s LPR cameras countywide.
Chief Deputy David Allen with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office attended the meeting to update the council on the agency’s response.
“As of August 31st, FDOT put out an order revoking permits for LPR on state right-of-ways,” Allen said. “The devices had to be removed within 30 days. That same day, Sheriff Aden directed us to cancel our contract with Flock and asked us to immediately stop using Flock cameras.”
Allen said all user accounts were canceled the following day. While the physical cameras remain visible on roadways, they are no longer in use. Flock is responsible for removing the hardware and has told the agency it will do so within 30 days, he said.
Allen said the sheriff decided to remove all Flock cameras countywide, not just those on state roads, for two reasons.
- “If we just remove state cameras … everybody’s going to think they’re state cameras,” Allen said. “So just to remove confusion from the public, we removed all of them.”
The second reason, Allen said, was that the agency is “waiting to get clear guidance from the state, the county, and the city to understand what you all would like us to use this technology and how you would like us to use this technology in the future and what best represents the balance of public safety and what the expectations are.”
Allen said the county and the City of Destin were notified that the cameras had been removed from the sheriff’s office fiscal year 2027 budget request.
Schmidt initially proposed blocking Flock cameras specifically, but at Mayor Bobby Wagner’s suggestion broadened the motion to cover all license plate reader technology. Councilman Dewey Destin then amended it to require a council vote before cameras could be reinstalled, rather than banning them outright.
Schmidt said the intent was to put a safeguard in place rather than impose a permanent prohibition.
“I’d rather have our ordinance in place first so they would come to us to figure out how we can add them back to the city,” Schmidt said. “Taking a little precautionary move to not prevent or block, but to put a boundary there.”
Destin said he had held “extensive discussions with the sheriff” and acknowledged that the cameras had helped solve crimes over the years.
- “I know if it was my grandchild that was grabbed and was saved by that camera, I might take a different attitude about it,” Destin said.
City staff raised a question about whether the ordinance would affect LPR cameras the city uses for parking enforcement at the community center, Marler Street, Zerbe and Joe’s Bayou, as well as the LPR-equipped parking enforcement vehicle. Staff said those systems are isolated and do not report to the sheriff’s office.
Schmidt said the ordinance targets law enforcement use of the technology, not city parking operations. Councilman John Stephens confirmed the distinction.
The council approved the motion. The ordinance will go through the standard adoption process, which includes multiple public hearings before the council takes a final vote.
