Florida county discovers 11 unpermitted Flock cameras with unknown owners
While removing Flock surveillance cameras after ending their use, officials in St. Lucie County, Florida, found more devices than expected, with several lacking any identifiable owner.
Officials in St. Lucie County, Florida, who decided to stop using Flock surveillance cameras and began taking them down, discovered more devices in the field than they had accounted for.
According to The Washington Post, county leaders believed 52 cameras had been installed, but found 14 additional units that were unaccounted for and lacked proper permits.
Sheriff's office claims only three
The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office later claimed three of the unpermitted cameras as its own, though it reportedly did not explain to the newspaper why those devices had never received the required paperwork.
That leaves 11 Flock cameras in the county whose owners remain unidentified and whose presence was unknown to any local officials. Several residents told The Post they felt unsafe or uneasy upon learning of the discovery.
A county official said notices were posted at the unclaimed cameras instructing whoever owns them to remove the devices. In the meantime, the cameras are being covered with plastic bags to stop any further data collection. A Post employee who visited the site of one unpermitted camera found it already taken down, with no indication of who had removed it.
Flock's camera systems have drawn sustained criticism over security vulnerabilities and privacy risks. Last month, the Florida Department of Transportation banned law enforcement agencies from placing Flock license plate readers on state roads. Despite some city and state governments reconsidering their use of the company's equipment, Flock cameras remain widespread, with more than 100,000 reportedly deployed across the United States.
