{"id":387851,"date":"2026-09-02T03:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T03:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387851\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T03:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T03:24:11","slug":"miami-beach-mayor-vows-to-fight-fdot-order-that-removes-flock-cameras-from-state-roads-wsvn-7news-miami-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387851\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Beach mayor vows to fight FDOT order that removes Flock cameras from state roads &#8211; WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) &#8211; Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner is vowing to fight back against <a href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/florida\/fdot-orders-removal-of-flock-cameras-from-state-highways-amid-privacy-surveillance-concerns\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/florida\/fdot-orders-removal-of-flock-cameras-from-state-highways-amid-privacy-surveillance-concerns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">orders by the Florida Department of Transportation to pull the plug on all Flock cameras<\/a> along state-run roads and highways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While many drivers likely have not seen the relatively small recording devices, the Flock cameras stationed along several roads see hundreds of vehicles driving through countless high traffic areas in South Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FDOT\u2019s order now gives agencies across the state 30 days to remove all license plate readers like those Flock cameras from state roads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meiner spoke with 7News on Tuesday, arguing that these cameras have provided a boon for local law enforcement in solving crimes. He also questions how effectively they can carry out community safety measures without the Flock license plate readers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLicense plate readers have solved crimes. It\u2019s helped trace cars of violent criminals and taking guns off our streets, it\u2019s helped find missing persons, it\u2019s helped solve crimes of vehicle thefts, it\u2019s led to arrests of serious criminals off our streets,\u201d said Meiner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meiner said FDOT\u2019s order would impact approximately half of the city\u2019s active license plate readers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe causeways leading up into Miami Beach are state roads, but also Collins Avenue, Alton [Road], parts of 41st Street, these are all state roads. We have roughly 40 LPRs, approximately half, roughly half are potentially on state roads,\u201d said Meiner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meiner plans to introduce local legislation to \u201ctake back control of our roads.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cameras have led to nationwide controversy due to the large swath of location data it could collect on any driver that passes through, leading to bipartisan criticism from officials and concerns over privacy for citizens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite those concerns, some residents in Miami Beach said Flock cameras have been a saving grace in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI got rear-ended a few months ago, and they hit-and-ran me and I had to use one of the streetlight cameras to get their license plate, and it really helped me out,\u201d said Miami Beach resident Harbor Fletcher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Others echoed growing concerns about the ease with which officials could potentially track residents for non-criminal activity and a private database that would keep those details on record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re mainly focusing on our privacy, where we are, what are we doing, how are we driving, our driving records; they\u2019re not really catching criminals, right? So take them down, we need some privacy,\u201d said Miami Beach resident Emily Martinez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monday\u2019s memorandum from FDOT stressed privacy concerns as one of the primary reasons for revoking permits for license plate readers. It also highlighted reports of misuse of the surveillance technology.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe recent exponential increase in deployments along our roadways, coupled with concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians\u2019 sovereignty and quality of life,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis questioned where all the data captured by these cameras would be stored, saying there\u2019s been no oversight of that information. He also called for legislative action to prevent the state from becoming \u201ca digital surveillance state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo there\u2019s obviously times where I think it\u2019s probably been useful, but where is this data going? How much data is the companies doing?\u201d\u00a0said DeSantis. \u201cThey claim that the companies aren\u2019t going to misuse it, but no one is watching that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office and Fort Lauderdale Police have both released statements announcing that they would be complying with state-mandated orders to remove Flock cameras from all state roads.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) &#8211; Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner is vowing to fight back against orders by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-387851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387851","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=387851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}