Florida county finds 11 unpermitted Flock cameras with unidentified owners

Officials in St. Lucie County, Florida, decided to end the county's use of Flock license plate readers and began taking them down. They believed the network had 52 cameras, but found 14 more that were unaccounted for and unpermitted. Three were later claimed by the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, which did not explain why the equipment never received the required paperwork. The remaining 11 cameras have no identified owner.

County sets a 30-day deadline as residents worry

The county posted notices at the unclaimed cameras giving owners 30 days to remove them, with some deadlines as late as October 20. County spokesperson Erick Gill told The Washington Post that staff plan to cover the cameras with plastic bags in the meantime to stop further data collection, and that Flock will be contacted if any remain after the deadline. A Post reporter confirmed one camera had already been taken down, with no sign of who removed it.

"That makes me feel very unsafe," resident Ty Grant told the paper. Todd Richter, who runs a fishing shop across the street from one camera, said he has no problem with the technology so long as it is clear who accesses it. "I'm not happy about it unless I know who it is," he said, "and I don't."

A pattern of misuse

Flock's cameras have faced scrutiny over privacy and security risks, and more than 100,000 are reportedly in use across the US. Last month, Florida's Department of Transportation banned law enforcement from placing them on state roads, the only such ban in the country. Florida police have repeatedly been caught misusing the system: a Fort Pierce officer, Josepher Crutchfield, accessed a Flock database 382 times while stalking an ex-girlfriend, and another nearly doubled that number while searching for his estranged wife. Two Pinellas County deputies were arrested for invasive tracking: one searched for a minor, and the other stalked a woman he wanted to date. The Post has found at least 50 cases of police misuse nationwide. Flock says it has added safeguards; experts argue they are ineffective.

What happens next

St. Lucie County Commissioner James Clasby told local media there is "potential for non-law enforcement to have cameras out there, and I'm not OK with that," adding that not knowing the owners is a further issue Flock must address. A Flock spokesperson told the Post the company has contacted county officials and said permitting requirements vary by jurisdiction and are not necessary everywhere. Similar surprises have happened before: in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flock installed two cameras without telling anyone after the technology was banned, and in Millcreek, Utah, an unknown camera turned up on city property. In Palm Bay, Florida, officials suspended their system after Flock repeatedly installed cameras without requesting final inspections.

Sources: Engadget · Ars Technica