The Electronic Frontier Foundation reported on September 2 that two state governments had acted against automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks within a few days of each other.
What did Texas and Florida do?
- Texas, August 28: Governor Greg Abbott banned state agencies from spending public funds on Flock cameras.
- Florida, August 31: The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) issued a memo, announced by Governor Ron DeSantis, ordering removal of all ALPRs from the right-of-way on state highways within 30 days.
- The Florida order also revokes every permit already approved for ALPRs on state highways and bars transportation officials from issuing new ones.
The Texas order landed just as The Texas Tribune was about to publish an investigation. EFF says that investigation found a state agency had quietly put at least $30 million into a large surveillance network. EFF does not say which agency or what the network covers.
FDOT officials said recent deployments along state roads, along with "concerning reports of misuse," had merited immediate action. EFF reports that local governments in Florida followed with a surge of cancellations and pauses on their vendor contracts.
Which plate readers do these orders reach?
Less than the headlines suggest. The Florida order covers the right-of-way on state highways only. EFF says many ALPRs in Florida sit on city streets, county roads, residential driveways and shopping center parking lots, and the FDOT order does not touch any of them.
The Texas directive stops state agencies from spending state money on the cameras. Local agencies can still use city, county, federal and private funds to install them, EFF says.
What changes for drivers?
Cameras on state highways in Florida are the ones the FDOT order is aimed at. Cameras on city streets, county roads and private property stay where they are under that order. In Texas, the change applies to state agencies. A city, county or private owner that buys a camera with its own money is not affected by the order.
Use the camera map to see which cameras are installed near you, and how plate readers work for background on what the cameras capture.
What is still unknown?
- EFF does not say how many cameras Florida will remove from state highways.
- EFF does not say whether the removals were finished when it published on September 2.
- EFF says that by one count, an average of three localities per day halted contracts with Flock over the previous 30 days. It does not give a list.
EFF's own position is broader. It says ALPR mass surveillance "should not exist." EFF calls the Texas and Florida actions good steps but says it is "still far from the finish line," and it wants California's governor and transportation department to remove the ALPRs that U.S. Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration have installed on California highways. To see what a local agency has published about its own cameras, start with the agency transparency records.
The Florida order gives FDOT 30 days from its August 31 announcement to get the cameras off state highways.