- Florida police have discovered unauthorized Flock cameras
- At the moment it's not clear who is operating the devices
- The owners have been given 30 days to come forward
It's going from bad to worse for Flock and its license plate reader cameras: following Florida's decision to take the cameras out of use on highways across the state, police have found 14 unauthorized devices along St. Lucie County roads, with 11 of those still of unknown origin.
As Ars Technica reports, 3 of the 14 were claimed by the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. They were installed without the necessary permits, but at least the agency that had installed them could be traced.
When it comes to the other 11, it's really not clear who's operating them, or whether they're being actively used. County authorities are giving the owners 30 days to take them down, and may put plastic bags over them in the meantime.
There have been instances of Flock itself installing cameras without having done the necessary paperwork, including a 2024 incident that was covered in Forbes. According to a Flock spokesperson, the company has already reached out to St. Lucie County officials to try and get the mystery solved as quickly as possible.
Drastic action
As you might expect, residents are spooked by the Flock cameras of unknown origin. The devices were already being viewed with suspicion by many citizens in terms of how their data collection capabilities could be misused — and that was when they knew who it was accessing them.
Resident Ty Grant told the Washington Post that the 11 unaccounted for Flock cameras had left him feeling "very unsafe", while local shop owner Todd Richter said it was imperative that the camera operators are revealed.
Reaction across Reddit has run along similar sentiments, with posters declaring it's "time for the chainsaws" and speculating that foreign nations could be involved in putting up the cameras without the necessary permits.
There is actually one idea posted to Reddit that just might work: "Cut it down, see who comes complaining." However, for the next 30 days at least, St. Lucie County officials seem determined to offer the opportunity for the camera operators in question to come forward and reclaim their hardware (before it's taken down anyway).
