{"id":357081,"date":"2026-07-30T02:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T02:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357081\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T02:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T02:46:22","slug":"st-petersburg-flock-cameras-man-stages-weekly-protests-over-privacy-concerns-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357081\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg Flock cameras: Man stages weekly protests over privacy concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

A 77-year-old resident is staging weekly protests against St. Petersburg Flock cameras, arguing the automated license plate readers infringe on privacy.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg police utilize about 50 of the cameras across the city to track missing persons and investigate active crimes.<\/p>\n

Rekor Systems and Flock Safety state that data access is restricted, permanently logged, and designed to assist law enforcement.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A retired Florida resident is spending his weekends raising awareness about automated surveillance by protesting outside St. Petersburg<\/a> Flock cameras.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg Flock cameras protest<\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

Every Saturday, 77-year-old Carl Gunn sets up beneath a different camera with a homemade sign attached to a nearly 10-foot pool skimmer. He wants to peacefully draw attention to unanswered privacy concerns surrounding the technology rather than vandalize property.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘what can I do to voice my opinion?'” Gunn said. “They’re destroying property. I don’t want to do that.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Police camera data collection<\/p>\n

By the numbers<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg police report that roughly 50 Flock cameras are currently installed throughout the city. These automatic license plate readers capture vehicle images and compare them against law enforcement hot lists.<\/p>\n

License plate reader privacy concerns<\/p>\n

The other side<\/p>\n

Gunn worries about how long vehicle data is stored and who can access it, creating a sense of constant surveillance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Somebody is watching, and they’re watching all of us,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Charles Degliomini, the vice president of Rekor Systems, explained that agencies use stored information to search for specific license plates or vehicle descriptions during investigations. He noted that retention varies based on incident severity.<\/p>\n

Flock safety data security<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

Flock Safety states that data sharing between agencies remains disabled by default and only activates if the data owner enables it. The company also emphasizes that every search creates a permanent, immutable audit trail.<\/p>\n

Upcoming surveillance protest details<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

Gunn plans to continue his weekly demonstrations and will protest this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the intersection of Third Street South and Sixth Avenue South in St. Petersburg. He welcomes anyone who shares his concerns to join him.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

The information in this story was gathered from St. Petersburg resident Carl Gunn, who explained his protest motivations during an interview with FOX 13, as well as Charles Degliomini, vice president of Rekor Systems, along with data and details provided by the St. Petersburg Police Department and Flock Safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief A 77-year-old resident is staging weekly protests against St. Petersburg Flock cameras, arguing the automated license…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[46978,26268,145716,145715,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-357081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-flock-cameras","tag-license-plate-readers","tag-privacy-concerns","tag-rekor-systems","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}