Florida bans Flock and other license-plate cameras from state highways

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.: Florida has barred local law enforcement from installing automated license-plate readers, including Flock cameras, on state highways, officials said this week, after months of public fight over how the systems store the movements of millions of drivers.

The ban covers state roads. City and county streets are a different map. Police agencies that already built Flock networks in neighborhoods are not, under this order alone, required to take those cameras down.

Civil-liberties groups called the highway ban overdue. Sheriffs said they use the readers to find stolen cars and hit-and-run suspects, including a deadly St. Petersburg case this month where plate cameras helped produce an arrest.

Flock is the name most people know. It is not the only vendor. WFLA reported other ALPR brands are already in Florida communities, which is why the fight is likely to move from Tallahassee back to city halls.