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Florida revokes permits for license plate readers on state highways
- jmclnx 13d agoI cannot help to think 1 or more politician or their children was caught breaking a serious law that they would have avoided if the camera was not there. So the fix is to ban the cameras.
- cucumber3732842 13d agoDoubtful. Look at the Kennedys. The political class was never in serious danger. Worst case they have to do a favor for the department that has dirt on them.
- jmclnx 13d agoBut 1 thing, decades ago items were easier to hide. If the video from the camera got out, or to an opponent, that is harder to cover up.
- cucumber3732842 13d agoI meant like today. It's not like they're not still drunk crashing into stuff. Also nobody really cares because you know they can just write the check to make it right.
- mc32 13d agoThis is definitely a good step, however, ALPRs are not going away unfortunately. They have and are and will keep getting deployed by private businesses. They are too valuable for them at this time. The likes of Wal-Mart, etc., will potentially sell information to brokers and so on and some aggregator will resell the data to whomever wants to use the data.
- techdmn 13d agoAny business that puts an ALPR in their parking lot is a business I do not visit.
- alexpotato 13d agoHow would you know if it's there? I ask rhetorically but I also imagine that at some point there will be an app that tells you and then people will vote with their dollars to the places that don't have them.
- yesfitz 13d agoDeFlock already tracks ALPRs in private businesses' parking lots. https://maps.deflock.org/ https://maps.deflock.org/
- gruez 13d agoHow do you know a camera is a ALPR camera? How reliable is the data, is it just random people's unvetted reports?
- paimapi 13d agohttps://deflockilm.org/war-driving-for-flock-cameras/ https://deflockilm.org/war-driving-for-flock-cameras/ I know a couple of very tech savvy crews that war-drive and collect data on ALPRs in my city and they were the ones who mapped most of our city back in the day. there's been a big post-50501 DeFlock movement, though, so it's possible that more recent results are lower quality backed by lower subject matter expertise but it's not hard to set-up a good-enough scanner with something like Flock-You: https://github.com/MaxwellDPS/Flock-You-Android https://github.com/MaxwellDPS/Flock-You-Android even then, Flock cameras are visually distinctive compared to the Clearview/Motorola solutions that are more traditionally orb-like or are just straight tube CCTV housing. if you see a long black camera attached to a black pole with a solar panel attached, 99.9% chance you've spotted a Flock camera: https://www.wpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Flock_Safety_ALPR_Camera_53833285849.jpg https://www.wpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Flock_Safety_...
- josefritzishere 13d agoThis is the wrong thing to do, but we need more. Mass surveillance is a crime against humanity.
- Lord_Zero 13d agoWhat is the wrong thing to do?
- kspacewalk2 13d agoWhatever it is, we need more.
- josefritzishere 13d agoI could have been more clear. Mass surveillance is not something for which we should be issuing and revoking permits or licenses. It should be simply illegal full stop.
- stetrain 13d agoFundamentally we need controls on how both the state and private industry can store, use, and share such data. Playing whack-a-mole with each specific type of surveillance and company involved isn't really fixing the issue.
- thataccount 13d agoFlorida is leading the nation on wise legislation where surveillance is involved in this example. It isn't doing too bad on income tax and other pain points either.
- CSMastermind 13d agoMoving here after living in NYC for a decade was a breath of fresh air. I had forgotten that competent governments exist.
- thataccount 13d ago>Moving here after living in NYC for a decade was a breath of fresh air. I had forgotten that competent governments exist. Kinda sad since even though NYC was always iffy, it was never flat out as useless as it is now.
- pavel_lishin 13d agoWhat about NYC's current state makes it iffy?
- thataccount 13d ago[flagged]
- doc_ick 13d agoProbably that it’s blue and is run by a non Christian is my bet.
- cucumber3732842 13d agoThe local code enforcement situation is not great compared to a lot of other states due to how funding works (causes incentive to be predatory) but you probably won't notice coming from NYC.
- shevy-java 13d ago
- shevy-java 13d agoIt's almost like in the movie Minority Report. The state knows where you are at all times (well, not entirely true right now, but to a high extent true now, at the least for car drivers).
- deleted 13d ago[deleted]
- chuckadams 13d agoMore like Enemy of the State. Where's your phone right now?
- justanother 13d agoThis refers only to Flock cameras. In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties (probably others or even most, but I cannot personally verify), there are non-Flock ALPR cameras on every major intersection stoplight gantry, feeding license plate and vehicular-fingerprint data to regional LE "Fusion Centers," where Palantir's Gotham product absolutely is in use. This is of course in addition to FDOT's PTZ cameras also. Forgive a cynic for telling you that banning Flock on state highways is purely performative in such light.
- chuckadams 13d agoThe memo refers to all ALPR systems, and does not mention Flock at all. It's one page: https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/default-source/design/bulletins/eom26-01.pdf?sfvrsn=52938dee_1&Status=Master https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/defaul...
- justanother 13d agoIn that case, marvelous. Here's hoping it's actually executed.
- chuckadams 13d agoThis has the backing of the governor of the state, who I trust not one bit. But the removal is happening within 30 days, which gives him basically no wiggle room to undo it in a backroom deal.
- asploder 13d agoI’m sure they’ll clarify this, but wouldn’t that include SunPass toll-by-plate facilities?
- chuckadams 13d agoThose are presumably owned by the state, so there's no permit to revoke.
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- asploder 13d agoHas there been any reporting into whether Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise has adequate data access controls around SunPass? They have ALPRs to operate the toll-by-plate system on bridges and toll roads across the state. In my view, that’s one of the better reasons to have ALPRs at all, but you do need strict controls to prevent misuse.
- CrazyElephant 13d agoMonroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay on the data from toll roads: "The data is used by all law enforcement. All they have to do is contact the state and get the information. We’ve used it countless times for criminal investigations to see where they’re going, what car they’re in, who the driver is to possibly ID the suspect." https://keysweekly.com/42/state-orders-removal-of-plate-cameras-used-to-fight-crime-locate-the-missing/ https://keysweekly.com/42/state-orders-removal-of-plate-came...
- nashashmi 13d agoWhat would proper governance of a powerful flock like tool be? It is a public private partnership. Public benefit. Public infrastructure. Private collection. Private software. Private computing. Private access. Private power.
- breakpointalpha 13d agoAt a minimum a judge signed warrant should be required for any data access. Second, a third-party annual security and data audit, with power to revoke licenses if findings aren't mitigated within a reasonable time frame. Finally, a civilian oversight committee with real power to sanction bad actors.
- nashashmi 13d agoThe fact that it is private data, they could have made this openly accessible
- abe94 13d agoI'll go out on a limb here, all this pushback against ALPRs is starting to feel like throwing the baby out with the bathwater this article in particular was an interesting case for the benefits of ALPRs: https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/a-cops-case-for-flock https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/a-cops-case-for-flock tl;dr - actually useful for stopping car related crime like thefts, which has a wide ranging affect on other related violent crime, - is not the same as facial recognition, or phone tracking - abuse is detectable - constitutional arguments for ALPRs being a form of privacy intrusion are flimsy since they are mostly applied to public roads which have no privacy protections
- ibejoeb 13d agoThe constitutional arguments have actually already been heard, and the court has determined that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy from continuous government surveillance of movement. The relevant cases are Carpenter and Chatrie.
- deleted 16d ago[deleted]