JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 You may have driven past a Flock camera without ever knowing what it was, or what information it could capture.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Have you been Flocked? This website may show whether police have searched your plates<\/a><\/p>\n Now, Jacksonville City Councilman Jimmy Peluso wants to change how the city handles the automated surveillance technology, including who gets a voice before a new camera goes up.<\/p>\n Peluso is hosting a public meeting Friday at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall to discuss automated surveillance equipment policies, regulation and a possible temporary moratorium on new cameras.<\/p>\n Peluso told News4JAX\u2019s reporter Briana Brownlee<\/a> and Photojournalist Jesse Hanson he already has draft legislation he wants to bring forward. But Friday\u2019s meeting is not a vote on that legislation.<\/p>\n Instead, he wants to determine what Jacksonville is legally allowed to do under Florida law and what other communities in the state have done.<\/p>\n \u201cI do have some draft legislation that I\u2019m going to present tomorrow,\u201d Peluso said.<\/p>\n What Peluso wants to change<\/p>\n Peluso said his proposal would include an inventory of automated surveillance cameras in Duval County and a new process for installing them.<\/p>\n He also wants to explore giving neighborhoods a way to petition for a camera to be removed.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you should go to the CPACs. I think you should speak with a community before you put up a new camera. It\u2019s also meant to create an inventory of all the cameras in Duval County, and then the ultimate goal is let\u2019s create a process that if a neighborhood wants to, there\u2019s a petition process to remove a camera,\u201d Peluso said.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s official notice for Friday\u2019s meeting specifically lists automated surveillance equipment policies, regulations and a temporary moratorium among the topics to be discussed.<\/p>\n Peluso said his goal is to leave the meeting with a better understanding of what legislation he can file.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat tools do we have available to us, and then I provide my vision for what I want to see, which is inventory, a moratorium on new ones, a new process for how to install them, and then the ability for a neighborhood or a community to remove them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said any proposed legislation would still have to go through a legal review.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of our budget season, so there\u2019s a lot of our attorneys and a lot of staff work going towards the budget,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t expect this to be, you know, done tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Peluso said he hopes the process can move forward within the next few weeks, depending on the legal review.<\/p>\n Why Flock cameras are controversial<\/p>\n Flock cameras are automated license plate readers that capture information about vehicles passing by, including license plate information and the time and location associated with a sighting. The technology allows law enforcement to search vehicle information as part of criminal investigations.<\/p>\n