{"id":382698,"date":"2026-08-27T16:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382698\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T16:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:08:24","slug":"st-petersburg-city-council-to-discuss-flock-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382698\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg City Council to discuss Flock cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Flock-scaled.jpg\" class=\"attachment-265589 size-265589 wp-post-image\" alt=\"A sign reading &quot;Down with the Flock&quot; blocks a Flock camera\" large=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Flock camera blocked by a sign reading &#8220;Down With Flock&#8221; \/ Valerie Smith<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2021, Flock Safety installed dozens of cameras in St. Petersburg without public input. One faces the Pier, while another watches a south St. Pete recreation center. Activist group DeFlock St. Pete is asking city council to remove the cameras.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike standard surveillance cameras, Flock logs each passing car in an AI-powered database, searchable nationwide. Police can then track a vehicle\u2019s location over time. Unlike GPS or cell phone tracking, Flock searches don\u2019t require a warrant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flock says the cameras help return stolen vehicles and abducted children. Zach Schira, DeFlock St. Pete\u2019s lead organizer, said catching criminals shouldn\u2019t infringe on civil liberties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSystems like this are prone to abuse,\u201d Schira told WMNF. \u201cBoth, you know, individual abuse by law enforcement who have been found using the system to stalk private individuals. And then it\u2019s also prone to systemic abuse. It can be weaponized against political dissidents or minority groups. We don\u2019t think that those use cases that they are highlighting are worth sacrificing our Fourth Amendment right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither mayoral candidate has called for ending St. Pete\u2019s contract. Incumbent Ken Welch was in office when Flock was introduced to the city, and said he supports the technology because it helps the police solve crimes faster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former Governor Charlie Crist <a href=\"https:\/\/baynews9.com\/fl\/tampa\/news\/2026\/08\/19\/crist-calls-for-flock-camera-moratorium-in-st-pete-welch-defends-use\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">seemingly attempted to set himself apart<\/a> from his opponent, proposing what he described as a \u201cmoratorium\u201d on Flock. But Schira said that\u2019s too vague.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m glad to hear something at least a little bit skeptical of Flock cameras, but I think it doesn\u2019t mean a whole lot to me,\u201d Schira told WMNF. \u201cLike, I don\u2019t know what that actually means. I don\u2019t know what mechanism there is to put a moratorium in. These cameras are out on our streets right now, recording data constantly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schira warned that removing the cameras might not be a full win. Other cities that ended their Flock contracts discreetly installed similar cameras made by Axon or other manufacturers. A complete solution will require removing the technology altogether, Schira said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St. Petersburg City Council will vote Thursday afternoon on referring the Flock discussion to the Public Services and Infrastructure committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Flock camera blocked by a sign reading &#8220;Down With Flock&#8221; \/ Valerie Smith In 2021, Flock Safety&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[46978,30415,132,202,204,203,199,201,200,15675,8700,417],"class_list":["post-382698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-flock-cameras","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-police","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-surveillance","tag-valerie-smith","tag-wmnf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382698","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=382698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}