Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized Flock Safety cameras and other license plate readers, calling for legislative action to protect civilians from privacy violations.

“When I see like a police officer using this to track like an ex-girlfriend, I’m like, what the he**’s going on with this?” DeSantis asked.

“And no one’s been stronger on law enforcement than me, but I don’t want to have this become a surveillance state,” he continued.

“I don’t want there to be a situation. And that’s why we wanted an AI Bill of Rights. Remember, we were pushing for that,” he added.

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As reported last year by GovTech, at least 100 law enforcement agencies in the state use Flock license plate reader (LPR) cameras. That’s part of a national network estimated at more than 100,000 cameras, a sprawl the grassroots group DeFlock, which opposes the technology, has been documenting on a crowdsourced public map.

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There are nearly 7,500 LPRs in Florida, according to WUFT.

DeSantis worries that the increasingly ubiquitous devices threaten civil liberties and could lead to a “surveillance state.”

While he acknowledges that state agencies use the tools, he says the bulk of the action is with “Police Departments and Sheriff’s Departments, by and large.”

“I think these cameras, the license plate readers, I think it’s out of control,” DeSantis said, according to the outlet.

Florida Democrats weren’t moved by the governor’s comments.

“Republicans have been in charge for 30 years, and instead of protecting Floridians’ privacy, they allowed this technology to spread without meaningful safeguards. Now the governor wants credit for sounding the alarm,” said Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried, the outlet noted.

“David Jolly has been clear on where he stands: police should need a warrant before they can use your Flock camera data, full stop. Floridians shouldn’t have to guess whether their government needs permission to track their every move,” she added.

News4JAX shared further:

DeSantis pointed to New Hampshire as a potential model for Florida, saying the state had passed legislation regulating how and where license plate readers can be used — specifically limiting their placement on state rights-of-way.

“I’m in the process of reviewing that because I think that would probably be a good place to start for us here,” he said.

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He acknowledged, however, that a fix would require action from the Legislature, not the governor’s office alone.

“The only way it could be dealt with is legislatively,” DeSantis said. “This is not something that’s being implemented primarily at the local level — you’re going to the legislature to provide protections for people.”

DeSantis encouraged Floridians who share his concerns to make the issue a priority when evaluating candidates for state office.

“If it’s something you’re concerned about, then I think you should talk to the people running for office, particularly for the legislature,” he said.

He was careful to draw a distinction between targeted law enforcement use and broad surveillance of ordinary residents.

 

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