Tallahassee reverses course, suspends Flock cameras

==> Article link

Tallahassee Democrat. Updated Sept. 9, 2026, 10:02 p.m.

Flock cameras taken offline in Leon County

Leon County sheriff suspends Flock cameras after DeSantis order; touts crime-solving benefits but urges oversight.

Tallahassee’s city commission has directed the Tallahassee Police Department to suspend its network of Flock Safety cameras and other similar license plate readers in the capital city.

Commissioners debated how to proceed in light of the state’s directive to remove all Flock cameras along state highway rights-of-way during its Sept. 9 meeting. Ultimately, the commission unanimously voted to suspend the cameras, pleasing more than a dozen of speakers who stood before commissioners asking them to do just that.

“I’m not sure why the Tallahassee Police Department is holding out on this issue,” one speaker said. “You guys are really the front line defenders of our privacy.”

The commission’s solidarity comes a week after dozens of sheriff’s offices around the state — including the Leon County Sheriff’s Office — started suspending their use of Flock’s license plate readers. It also comes not long after the majority voted against Commissioner Jeremy Matlow’s attempt to have the city back out of its contract with the increasingly controversial company just days before the state cracked down on the cameras.

All license plate readers will be suspended until national guidelines have been established and policies for the technology are in place.

Wednesday’s unanimous vote is the first time the commission has been a united front against Flock Safety and other similar license plate readers.

For months, Matlow, Commissioner Jack Porter and numerous members of the community have been pushing to take the cameras down, but the idea really only gained traction after Gov. Ron DeSantis said during an Aug. 26 event that the use of Flock cameras is “out of control.”

And many speakers scolded the commission for not taking the lead on the issue.

P.J. Perez, who’s running for Matlow’s seat in the November election, spoke during the meeting, saying that instead of the capital city being ahead on the issue, Tallahassee is behind the governor’s initiative and other cities around the state.

“We had to wait for it to become a safe issue politically for us to act on this thing,” Perez said. “This is not the way that our capital city needs to be acting, right?”

Law enforcement agencies have long touted the advantages of having the cameras, citing numerous cases the license plate readers have helped lead to arrests.

TPD noted Flock’s technology helped officers track down suspects in an armed robbery and double homicide, attempted murders and even located an elderly individual with dementia who was reported missing after leaving home in the middle of the night.

Across Florida’s capital city and county, 116 Flock cameras were posted on streets — 80 of which were manned by TPD and 36 by LCSO.

Not long before the cameras were disconnected, LCSO, alongside TPD, launched transparency portals as a means to build trust within the community by helping residents better understand how the technology is used.

“Tell these ALPR companies to get the Flock out of Tallahassee,” another speaker said.

At the start of the discussion, Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox — who has previously voted against the action she agreed to today — said they needed to follow suit with LCSO and “provide some consistency.”

“At the last meeting, I mentioned that I didn’t like the hodgepodge of some doing this, or some doing that,” Williams-Cox said.

Commissioner Jeremy Matlow made a point to note that there were previous attempts to make this happen earlier, but the majority of the commission “tends to reject what the public is asking for, time and time again.”

“This decision is only changing because of you,” Matlow said to the public speakers.

He made an attempt to have the cameras covered by bags within 24 hours and removed within 30 days, but the motion quickly died.

City Manager Reese Goad said that the cameras will be turned off, meaning the data and cameras cannot be accessed by them or anyone else. And he added that this is what LCSO did when it suspended its cameras.

“I don’t think it’s a total victory for people who don’t want to see this come back in a year and go through the same process again,” Matlow said.