The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office will remove all of its automated license plate reader cameras after the Florida Department of Transportation issued a statewide order revoking permits for the devices on state rights-of-way.
- FDOT’s Engineering and Operations Memorandum No. 26-01, dated Aug. 31, gives local law enforcement agencies 30 days to remove all LPR devices from state road rights-of-way. The department said it will remove any remaining devices after the 30-day window.
“From the very start of this discussion, I said that if a judge ruled these cameras are unconstitutional, or the governor determined they violated the law, we would certainly comply,” said Sheriff Eric Aden. “Though LPR technology has not been ruled unconstitutional, the FDOT Memorandum eliminates our ability to use them.”
While the majority of OCSO’s Flock cameras are located on state rights-of-way, Sheriff Aden said the agency will also begin removing its remaining devices on county rights-of-way.
- OCSO will formally notify Flock Safety, its LPR vendor, and begin working through contract timelines for equipment removal.
The FDOT memorandum, signed by Chief Operating Officer Will Watts, cited the “recent exponential increase in deployments” of LPR systems along Florida roadways and “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” as reasons for the revocation. The department said the action was necessary “to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”
The order invokes Section 316.0777 of Florida Statutes, which grants FDOT broad authority to approve or deny requests from local law enforcement agencies to place LPR systems within state road rights-of-way and to remove them at the department’s discretion.
In addition to revoking active permits, FDOT said it will use its discretionary authority to cease the issuance of all future LPR placement requests.
The Sheriff’s Office did not rule out future use of LPR technology but said it will wait for clearer legal guidance on constitutionality before revisiting the program.
“This is disappointing from a public safety standpoint,” Sheriff Aden said. “It’s been a valuable tool in solving crime and protecting lives.”
4 Responses
I voted for Aden, and I’m sorry that you think it’s ok to have suvailance on every American in our county.
I can’t even make a comment about it without yall wanting to know my name and email address .
We just want to live our lives!
I hope speed cameras or next. Let’s get law enforcement back to doing what they are paid to do instead of sitting in their cars watching speeders and law breakers. And not the flock cameras Niceville had an officer using them to stalk, so how is that helping catch criminals other than the some of the ones in law enforcement.
DeSantis and Aden are wise to eliminate these “big brother” tools before the uprising! Hard to believe that so many politicians in our “representative” form of government become so much smarter than the voters who elected them as soon as they are in office.
It is shockingly past time to end these invasive citizen surveillance cameras. So many of us are stunned that our hired and elected officials were willing to abuse, even criminalize, us in this way. Many of us reviewed America’s founding individual freedom documents. And feel sure these cameras have been unconstitutional from the start. Worse the city school zone cameras – operated by a foreign company – are far more dishonest and damaging to citizens than those put up by the county. To think our hired and elected officials would set themselves up a separate, near secret and unregulated, huge tax by misleading, arresting, and fining us is truly painful.
Jim Baughman
Baughman Institutional Family Office LLC, Florida