Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis BANS Flock Cameras from State Highways

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered all Flock cameras be removed from the state highway system within the next 30 days. pic.twitter.com/jQjULgNVbu

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 31, 2026

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The Florida Department of Transportation has just revoked all permits it has previously issued for license plate reading cameras, such as Flock, in the right of way of any state highway and will not issue new permits.

Agencies have 30 days to remove the cameras. pic.twitter.com/9AtxKJZM2i

— TheIntelFrog (@TheIntelFrog) August 31, 2026

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Will Watts, the chief operating officer of the Florida Department of Transportation, informed local law enforcement agencies in a one-page memo that the department was revoking all previously issued approvals for license plate readers (LPRs) in state “rights-of-way,” or the strip of land that’s next to or part of a state road.

Watts cited a “recent exponential increase” in deployments of law enforcement cameras, as well as “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” that he said merit immediate action “to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”

Automatic license plate cameras are mounted to surveil roads throughout the United States, recording which vehicles pass by and when, often with the goal of catching criminal suspects or developing leads. The technology has been around since the 1970s but has spread widely in the past few years as the software has improved and the cost of hardware has fallen. Flock provides a network to customers that allows law enforcement groups from across the country to share footage from their cameras with other agencies and departments, prompting concerns about abuse.

The memo fulfills a vow from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who last week said that surveillance had gone too far.

“We’re gonna clear the state right-of-ways,” he said Friday on the Real America’s Voice podcast.

“These cameras that are out there now — who’s to say they’re only doing the license plate?” he said. “Now, they say that. I think it’s capturing people in their cars. I think it’s capturing way more information than they’re letting on. And you’ve seen the abuse.”

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