Florida bans Flock and other license plate readers from state highways as backlash grows - NBC News

Will Watts, the chief operating officer of the Florida Department of Transportation, sent local law enforcement agencies a one-page memo pulling every previously issued approval for license plate readers along state-controlled land. Watts cited a "recent exponential increase" in deployments as a driving factor. The move is part of a broader national pushback against Flock Safety and other surveillance camera companies that have expanded rapidly into cities and counties in recent years.

For people here in Lubbock, this story lands close to home. Flock Safety cameras have been deployed across Texas cities, and the debate over how much surveillance is too much on public roads is not abstract. Any expansion of license plate reader networks here would face similar scrutiny about who controls the data, how long it's stored, and who can access it.

Florida is the first state to take action at this scale against license plate reader deployments on public roads. The decision came not from a court but from a transportation office memo, a single page that undid a fast-growing surveillance footprint overnight.