{"id":430010,"date":"2026-10-17T00:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T00:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/430010\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T00:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T00:12:08","slug":"tallahassee-leaders-differ-on-vision-for-future-of-suspended-flock-cameras-the-famuan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/430010\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallahassee leaders differ on vision for future of suspended Flock cameras\u00a0\u00a0 \u2013 The FAMUAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Flock Camera spotted along one of Tallahassee\u2019s tree lined streets (Jonathan R.M. Charles \/ FAMUAN)<\/p>\n

Tallahassee\u2019s usage of Flock cameras have been suspended, but there remains a crucial divide as the city\u2019s November election looms.<\/p>\n

Some candidates want the cameras removed to protect residents\u2019 privacy, while an incumbent commissioner says stronger guidelines on usage of the cameras might eventually allow the technology to be used again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City Commission voted unanimously on Sept. 9 to suspend roughly 150 automated license plate readers, including Flock and Motorola cameras.<\/p>\n

A separate proposal to cover and remove them proposed by Commissioner Matlow failed 3-2. The vote suspended the readers but did not remove every mounted camera or shut down other types of public-safety cameras. The readers record information about passing vehicles that police can utilize during investigations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the Sept. 9 city commission meeting, a number of residents raised alarm about potential privacy concerns. Among them was David Derby, who raised concerns about potential abuse of Flock camera data by police officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand, as one of my officers explained to me, its a tool in their tool belt. But the tool is too easily abused,\u201d Derby said. \u201cI think this is a little bit of overreach \u2026 it\u2019s turning us into a surveillance state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other residents including Abdelilah Skhir, a senior strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union raised practical concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we drive to a doctor\u2019s office, a place of worship or a friend\u2019s home, we leave a trail. And the issue isn\u2019t just one snapshot. It\u2019s that enough snapshots can create a map of your life.\u201d Skhir said. \u201cThis inescapable network of surveillance gives police around the country the power to track our movements without a warrant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A view of a Flock Camera in Tallahassee (Jonathan R.M. Charles \/ FAMUAN)<\/p>\n

Before the suspension vote, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell defended the technology, saying it had helped his department solve serious crimes quickly and locate missing children. He said he understood residents\u2019 concerns but believed the answer was proper oversight of the technology, training and regular checks of who used the system and for what purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparency is critically important,\u201d Revell said. He said the department had audited its use of the cameras and found no local misuse. <\/p>\n

The city and the Leon County Sheriff\u2019s Office launched public portals<\/a> in August showing information about license plate reads, searches and alerts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, who is running for mayor, said those measures do not resolve his central concern: a system that can record where residents travel without their being suspected of a crime. <\/p>\n

He wants Tallahassee to end its Flock contract entirely and take down the cameras instead of leaving them suspended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see any system that shares data of the people who live in Tallahassee with people outside of Tallahassee\u201d Matlow said. He said police should use other available tactics to solve crimes. He also wants previously collected data deleted completely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox, who originally voted against removing the Flock cameras, said she initially focused on the technology\u2019s ability to help solve crimes. <\/p>\n

After hearing residents\u2019 concerns and speaking with law enforcement and legislators, she said she became more concerned about a private company collecting information on residents unconnected to criminal investigations as they went about their daily lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to protect our community,\u201d she said. \u201cWe also want to protect the privacy of our residents as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A closeup of a Flock Camera (Jonathan R.M. Charles \/ FAMUAN)<\/p>\n

Williams-Cox made the motion to suspend the readers, but she has not called for their permanent removal. She wants to learn whether stronger regulations could permit their use without compromising residents\u2019 privacy. <\/p>\n

When asked what specific policy she would propose, she said she would need to study the issue further.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Dot Inman-Johnson, who is challenging Williams-Cox for City Commission Seat 5, rejects that approach. She said the suspension leaves open a path to restarting the cameras and that she would push to ban and remove them if elected. The two face each other in the November election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m elected, well, I would push to ban them completely,\u201d Inman-Johnson said. She said officials should have demanded evidence of a measurable crime-prevention benefit before approving the readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Williams-Cox said the suspended cameras are no longer transmitting data, Matlow and Inman-Johnson both want them taken down and the city\u2019s contract with Flock to end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Flock Camera spotted along one of Tallahassee\u2019s tree lined streets (Jonathan R.M. Charles \/ FAMUAN) Tallahassee\u2019s usage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-430010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430010","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=430010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}