Florida and Texas move to block Flock license-plate cameras

Florida and Texas are moving to end their relationship with surveillance company Flock, as it faces growing backlash over privacy concerns and misuse of its license-plate-tracking technology. Florida’s Department of Transportation said in a Monday memo that it will stop using license plate readers, including Flock’s cameras, on the state’s highways, citing “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes”; the state has given itself 30 days to remove the cameras. The decision follows Florida Governor Ron DeSantis calling the technology “out of control” at a press conference the previous Wednesday.

Florida follows similar action by Texas, which last week ordered state agencies to stop funding Flock cameras. Governor Greg Abbott’s office cited abuse of the surveillance system, including the recent indictment of a Lufkin, Texas police officer on 100 felony counts related to allegedly searching Flock’s database to track people without authorization. Abbott’s office did not say which agencies would be affected, though local media reports Dallas could be broadly affected, as officials say hundreds of Flock cameras operate throughout the city.

The moves come amid rising bipartisan concern over privacy and civil liberties, following reports of cybersecurity issues, police officers abusing their access to Flock’s database to stalk ex-partners, and accuracy issues that have led to police stops and wrongful arrests. Recent reporting shows Flock’s cameras are moving beyond scanning license plates to also identifying and tracking people. Flock currently has around 130,000 license plate readers across the United States, and has faced pushback from communities that say they don’t want the cameras in their neighborhoods; towns including Evanston, Illinois, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Eugene, Oregon, have reported that Flock reinstalled or reactivated cameras despite local officials terminating their contracts with the company.

TechCrunch asked Flock whether it plans to let Florida and Texas remove their cameras, or whether it plans to reinstall or reactivate them; a Flock spokesperson did not respond to the request for comment.

Why it matters

Two of the largest, most politically divergent U.S. states cutting ties with the same surveillance vendor over the same misuse concerns signals that Flock’s growth may be running into a bipartisan backlash that state contracts alone won’t contain.