JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Councilman Jimmy Peluso will hold a meeting Friday at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall to discuss automated surveillance equipment policies, regulations, and more amid residents\u2019 concerns about Flock cameras and privacy.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Debate over Flock cameras grows in St. Johns County as residents raise privacy and spending concerns<\/a><\/p>\n Use of Flock Safety cameras has been a controversial topic across much of the nation, including Northeast Florida.<\/p>\n An apartment in North Jacksonville drew online attention when residents noticed a Flock camera positioned next to the community swimming pool<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTake them down straight up. Nobody asked for it. We don\u2019t want it \u2014 take it down,\u201d Darrell Brown, a resident, said.<\/p>\n RELATED: Here\u2019s where Flock cameras have been deployed across Northeast Florida<\/a><\/p>\n Brown called the camera \u201cinvasive\u201d and said he doesn\u2019t go to the pool anymore.<\/p>\n Some people have taken direct action to interfere with the cameras, including <\/p>\n On Wednesday, Governor Ron DeSantis called Flock camera surveillance \u2018out of control\u2019<\/a> and said that the technology has expanded far beyond its original purpose and needs legislative action.<\/p>\n \u201cI think these cameras, the license plate readers, I think it\u2019s out of control,\u201d DeSantis said during a press event at Florida International University in Miami.<\/p>\n DeSantis said license plate readers were initially used in Florida for tolling purposes \u2014 scanning plates at service plazas and toll roads \u2014 but have since evolved into tools for what he described as criminal surveillance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was something that was kind of out there in that vein, and then with this whole Flock situation, it\u2019s now being used not for tolling by plate or things like that, but for actual criminal surveillance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n