ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Pinellas County Sheriff is speaking out in support of Flock cameras.
This comes as the state has ordered those cameras on state roads to be taken down within the month. Some Tampa Bay area agencies are ending their use of the devices entirely.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says his agency has used automated license plate readers for 20 years and he told reporters that there’s a lot of misinformation out there about how they are used.
The sheriff says there are 73 Flock cameras throughout Pinellas County.
He says they take no video and only capture still photographs that anyone could take in a public place.
According to Gualtieri, they’ve helped investigators develop critical leads in cases involving abducted children, vehicle thefts and more.
“ALPR cameras are asleep unless a car passes by and it’s motion activated,” said Gualtieri. “There’s no continuous photographing, no continuous recording, no continuous surveillance. Why do people keep saying that? It’s not true.”
According to FDOT’s order that the cameras on state roads come down, the agency says concerns include “Exponential increase in deployments coupled with concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns and surveillance schemes.”