The Pinellas County Commission will vote Oct. 27 on whether to abandon or continue using Flock Safety cameras, following months of debate over the surveillance technology’s role in law enforcement.
Commissioner Vince Nowicki proposed abandoning the company’s equipment during an Oct. 8 workshop session. Under his proposal, the county would end its contracts, subscriptions and data-sharing agreements with Flock Safety and other automated license plate reader providers. Additionally, the proposal calls for removing cameras from county-controlled roads and rights-of-way within 30 days and preventing the county from entering new agreements for the technology.
The contentious technology has spurred pockets of public outcry. These ranged from a lone resident spending his Sundays in a folding chair, raising a board on a stick to obstruct a Flock camera, to a grassroots movement, DeFlock St. Pete, calling for immediate government intervention.
Nowicki maintains that supporting law enforcement doesn’t require collecting information about people who haven’t committed crimes.
“Public safety is job one, and I support our deputies,” Nowicki said. “Tracking someone who’s committed a crime is good police work. Logging every law-abiding resident’s drive and keeping it for up to three years is different. The line is simple: government should track criminals, not collect everyone’s movements just in case.”
His position contrasts with that of Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who spent more than an hour defending automated license plate readers during the Oct. 8 workshop.
Gualtieri has described the technology as potentially the greatest public safety invention since the two-way radio, arguing that it allows investigators to identify suspects, solve violent crimes and locate missing people more efficiently.
The sheriff’s defense comes amid scrutiny of his agency’s oversight practices following the arrests of two former deputies accused of improperly accessing law enforcement databases.
One deputy allegedly conducted roughly 300 license plate reader searches involving a woman he had previously arrested and later pursued romantically. Gualtieri acknowledged that existing audits failed to detect the searches.
He has proposed stronger monitoring, more frequent audits and artificial intelligence tools capable of identifying suspicious activity. He also maintains that individual misconduct should result in greater accountability rather than eliminating an investigative resource.
Nowicki sees the problem differently.
“This isn’t about the sheriff or our deputies,” Nowicki said. “Even the state agreed there’s a problem. The best safeguard is not collecting data on people who’ve done nothing wrong.”
Earlier this year, the Florida Department of Transportation ordered automated license plate readers removed from state highway rights-of-way. The directive affected 23 of the Sheriff’s Office’s 73 fixed readers and six of the St. Petersburg Police Department’s 50 Flock cameras, according to figures previously reported by Florida Politics.
The state action did not prohibit the technology on county or municipal roads, leaving much of the existing network in place.
Even if commissioners approve Nowicki’s resolution, the county cannot compel independently elected Gualtieri or municipal police departments to discontinue their own license plate reader programs.
Nowicki acknowledges those limitations, but says the proposal would establish the county’s position while requiring an accounting of its involvement in the surveillance network.
“On Oct. 27, the commission finally gets to vote,” Nowicki said. “It puts the county on record, ends the county’s own contracts, and asks for a full accounting of every camera, who owns it and what it costs.”
The resolution would also urge the Sheriff’s Office and municipal police departments to discontinue using automated license plate readers.
Nowicki contends that other Florida law enforcement agencies have already moved away from the technology.
“We wouldn’t be alone,” he said. “More than two dozen Florida sheriffs have already pulled these cameras, including Duval, Pasco, Volusia, Okaloosa, Nassau, Putnam, Bradford, Liberty and Wakulla.”
The number of sheriffs cited by Nowicki has not been independently verified, nor has the extent to which each agency has discontinued its use of license plate readers.
The dispute has also raised questions about access to collected data, retention practices and whether safeguards can adequately prevent misuse.
Following the Oct. 8 workshop, residents criticized commissioners for what they considered insufficient scrutiny of Gualtieri’s presentation. Some also questioned his involvement with the Major County Sheriffs of America, an organization sponsored by surveillance technology companies. Gualtieri has rejected suggestions that those relationships influence his support for the cameras.
Commissioners previously delayed consideration of Nowicki’s proposal to give Gualtieri an opportunity to present his case.