On August 31, 2026, Florida's Department of Transportation revoked every state permit for automated license-plate readers on state road rights-of-way, including cameras made by Flock Safety. FDOT's Will Watts wrote that "the recent exponential increase in deployments," plus "concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes," required "immediate action to preserve Floridians' sovereignty and quality of life." Agencies have until September 30 to pull the devices themselves, or FDOT will remove them. The order only covers state-controlled roads, not local or county roads. Gov. Ron DeSantis had said days earlier that license-plate readers were "out of control" and that he didn't want Florida to become a "surveillance state."

1. The State Government (Gov. Ron DeSantis, FDOT's Will Watts)

The state says surveillance got out of control, and it's done waiting to fix it.

Florida cited real cases of officers abusing the cameras. Police arrested a Haines City officer after he searched Flock data on his estranged wife's vehicle more than 700 times between September 2024 and June 2026, and a Sumter County sheriff fired and charged a detective for using plate databases to track his ex-wife.

DeSantis says police can keep the tool, just not free rein. He told reporters he thinks "people are right to be concerned" about the cameras, while acknowledging the technology "could help law enforcement solve crimes."

Watts framed the growth of the camera network itself as the risk. His memo didn't single out one bad actor — it pointed to the "exponential increase in deployments" statewide as the reason the state needed to act now, not later.

2. Sheriffs Who Aren't Giving Up the Cameras (Gulf County Sheriff Mike Harrison, Longboat Key Police Chief Russ Mager)

These departments say the tool works — they plan to keep it, or get it back.

Harrison is keeping his nine cameras running until the deadline hits. He said, "I think you'll start hearing some of those stories statewide of how effective and how much we need them to do our job in law enforcement," and plans to work with the Florida Sheriffs Association to get the cameras reinstated after they come down.

Longboat Key Police Chief Russ Mager isn't complying at all. He calls his department's camera "a force multiplier" that runs "24 hours a day, seven days a week," and says he has no plans to remove it.

Two documented cases back up their argument. Titusville police credited the cameras with locating a homicide suspect, and Marion County authorities used them to find a 13-year-old subject of an Amber Alert.

3. Sheriffs Complying Now, But Pushing the Legislature for a Permanent Fix (Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford, Leon County Undersheriff Ron Cave)

These departments are pulling their cameras today. But they want the Legislature writing the real rules, not a governor's memo.

Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford is complying while defending the technology. He says the cameras "have made Bay County safer" and calls talk of misuse misinformation. Still, he's taking his down until "the Florida Legislature provides clear statewide rules" — and he'd bring them back once lawmakers set them.

Cave wants standards set before any camera returns. Leon County's undersheriff is asking accrediting bodies to "implement standards that's going to address the usage of LPRs."

Jackson County argues its own program was already clean. The sheriff's office said it had safeguards in place and "no track record of misuse to this point," even as it complies with the removal.

4. Privacy Advocates (ACLU of Florida's Abdelilah Skhir, University of Tampa's Abigail Hall)

The hardware isn't the real problem, privacy advocates say. The data rules are — and this order doesn't touch those.

The ACLU wants strict limits on the data itself. Abdelilah Skhir is pushing for "short retention periods" and "very strict limits on how the data gets shared."

Hall says data access is the real risk. The University of Tampa economist argues the real danger is who can reach the data the camera collects.

Nikki Fried says Florida waited too long to act. The Florida Democratic Party chair said the technology "was allowed to spread without sufficient safeguards," faulting years of unregulated growth that predated this order.

Where This Lands

Florida's sheriffs are splitting county by county, not along one clean line. Holmes, Jackson, Bay, and Walton counties are removing their cameras by the deadline; Gulf County and Longboat Key are not. DeSantis and FDOT say the growth of the camera network itself was the danger. The sheriffs resisting say the tool solves real cases and they intend to get it back. The sheriffs complying say the same thing but want the Legislature to write the rules instead of a governor's memo. Privacy advocates say all of that misses the point. What matters is the data limits, whether or not the cameras come back.

Sources