{
  "id": 11502467,
  "title": "11 mysterious cameras were watching Florida drivers. Officials don’t know who owns them",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/11-mysterious-cameras-were-watching-florida-drivers-officials-dont",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-02T18:15:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91617674/11-mysterious-cameras-were-watching-florida-drivers-officials-dont-know-who-owns-them"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In St. Lucie County, Florida, an unexpected surveillance issue emerged when the county discovered 11 unpermitted cameras secretly monitoring its roads. The revelation came after the county decided to discontinue its own Flock automated license plate reader system, which is utilized by over 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. Upon conducting an inventory, the county identified 14 cameras without proper permissions, with three of these attributed to local law enforcement agencies, leaving 11 unaccounted for. The county promptly sent letters to revoke permissions for the identified cameras and posted notices on the unpermitted devices to remove them within 30 days. St. Lucie County Communications Director Erick Gill stated that 13 of these devices were located on county streets, while one was within the city of Port St. Lucie. The unpermitted cameras were first reported by local news outlet WPEC. St. Lucie County Commissioner James Clasby expressed concern over the lack of transparency regarding who has access to the camera data, raising questions about the company behind the technology and its data-sharing practices. The incident occurred shortly after Florida's Department of Transportation ordered law enforcement agencies to remove cameras from state highways due to privacy concerns. Governor Ron DeSantis vowed to remove the cameras in response to public outcry over the surveillance network, suggesting they may capture more than license plate information. Texas Governor Greg Abbott echoed similar sentiments, highlighting instances of abuse by law enforcement officers accessing Flock's database. The backlash against Flock cameras and similar surveillance systems is prompting even traditionally conservative Republicans to denounce the technology. In Congress, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill to ban Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers nationwide, while Republican Senator Josh Hawley proposed federal regulations without banning their use. Senator Bernie Sanders condemned the installation of tens of thousands of cameras across America without community consent, emphasizing the erosion of privacy due to artificial intelligence.",
  "summary": "Florida’s St. Lucie County recently discovered that its residents were being surveilled by mysterious cameras installed in secret and unconnected to any state or local agency. The county found the cameras after it voted to uninstall its own fleet of Flock automated license plate readers , which are used by more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies to track drivers’ movements on roads around the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}