Putnam County will immediately discontinue its use of Flock cameras, according to a Facebook post from the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff H.D. DeLoach made the announcement Monday afternoon, citing an "evolving statewide and national discussion concerning privacy, data sharing and the appropriate limits of government use of this technology."
The sheriff's office said DeLoach directed all automatic license plate reading cameras (ALPRs) to be immediately disconnected and removed within 30 days.
The automated cameras have sparked fierce debate this summer, with reports of damaged and vandalized cameras across the nation. They use artificial intelligence to take note of all vehicles that pass them, their license plates, and any identifying features such as scratches or dents before storing that data to a shared database. Police departments across the country can share and look up information.
Shortly after the Putnam County announcement, WUFT obtained a memo from the Florida Department of Transportation sent to law enforcement agencies across the state.
The new order immediately halts all new ALPR requests on state roads and calls for their immediate removal from state roads within 30 days. It continues, noting that if they are not removed by local law enforcement within that timeframe, the state will remove them.
"While Florida law limits the issuance of permits for LPR systems to law enforcement agencies, the recent exponential increase in deployments along our roadways, coupled with concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians' sovereignty and quality of life," the memo reads.
The moves come just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis cautioned against APLR overuse in a press conference at Florida International University. While he agreed the cameras are useful tools for law enforcement in solving crimes, he called for restrictions.
“I’m all about having law enforcement have tools to be able to hold criminals accountable. I think that’s important that we do that," he said. "And no one’s been stronger on law enforcement than me. But I don’t want to have this become a surveillance state.”
Putnam County first installed the technology in 2022 and used the cameras to find missing people with dementia, solve murder cases and pinpoint a victim of human trafficking, the sheriff's office said.
