{"id":18564,"date":"2026-08-28T08:59:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=18564"},"modified":"2026-08-28T09:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T16:07:42","slug":"florida-sheriff-dismisses-flock-camera-concerns-as-ignorance-and-misinformation-compares-deflock-efforts-to-defund-the-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/florida-sheriff-dismisses-flock-camera-concerns-as-ignorance-and-misinformation-compares-deflock-efforts-to-defund-the-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Sheriff Dismisses Flock Camera Concerns as \u2018Ignorance and Misinformation,\u2019 Compares \u2018DeFlock\u2019 Efforts to \u2018Defund the Police\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This sheriff should get voted out of office if you care about your county. And actually, most people against Flock ALPR camera warrantless surveillance actually support law enforcement, so this sheriff is spinning propaganda and disingenuous. And lets call it plainly, lazy. Consequently, I’ve heard there is a challenge for Halloween to vandalize Flock ALPR cameras, which is funny as it’s the perfect day for disguises. And as the cameras are leased and not bought, hopefully Flock eats the expense in replacing them. They’re not all that technologically sophisticated really, nor are they very good at engineering the hardware<\/a>, as the real threats are the other manufacturers like Axon and Motorola, or Leonardo signal trackers<\/a>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2026\/08\/27\/florida-sheriff-dismisses-flock-camera-concerns-as-ignorance-and-misinformation-compares-deflock-efforts-to-defund-the-police\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"BLOOMSBURG,
@Rob_HardwickFL, Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Hannah Knudsen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Florida sheriff dismissed growing concerns over Flock cameras in his community as ignorance, asserting that the AI-powered automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are essential to help solve crimes, and compared efforts to \u201cdeFlock\u201d the community to cities who want to defund the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick spoke with The 904 Now on August 14 about the emergence of Flock cameras, which are said to act only as automatic license plate readers, in his jurisdiction that reportedly has roughly 180 in operation. Maps show some exits having four in one small area alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAcross the great state of Florida, here in St. Johns County, we\u2019re not hearing the rhetoric that the rest of the country is actually preaching,\u201d Hardwick said. \u201cMatter of fact, we\u2019re not really hearing the rhetoric across the great state of Florida because of our support and leadership, including Lieutenant Governor from \u2026 the capital in Tallahassee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardwick dismissed the concerns over mass surveillance as the \u201cflavor of the day\u201d that will eventually die down. He also tied concerns over Flock cameras and the want to remove them to efforts in Democrat-run cities that actively seek to defund the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut here\u2019s the one thing I say, and I\u2019ve been blasting emails because I feel like it\u2019s the flavor of the day, and we\u2019ll move on to something else. But if you look at the map that was produced on the local media sources over the last couple days, if you look at the cities that are removing Flock, those are the same exact cities, in the same exact states that defund the police department, turn our backs on us when one incident occurs,\u201d he said, using crime-ridden Minneapolis as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cListen, we hold our people accountable in the St. Johns County Sheriff\u2019s Office, we have had license plate reader technology, not just Flocks, since 2017. When I came on as sheriff, it\u2019s on steroids now too, as well, because I do not want to be that community that cannot solve crime,\u201d he said, defending the additional surveillance and dismissing critics as ignorant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA little bit of it is ignorance and misinformation of what it truly is,\u201d he said, contending that Flock is American-owned and therefore more trustworthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026and [it\u2019s] operated out of just outside Washington D.C. in Virginia. They don\u2019t share the information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, the Florida sheriff said he owns the information and chooses what he wants to do with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mine. I own it. I choose to do what I want to do with the information \u2026. We only share it with surrounding counties,\u201d he said, admitting they also share it with the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo we share it with the federal government? Yes. The FBI is the only other entity in the federal government that we share it with. We have very tight parameters, and I think you understand why,\u201d Hardwick continued, arguing that Flock is necessary to help track terrorists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that we track these people that are trying to kill us in America, whether it\u2019s weapons of mass destruction, whether it\u2019s \u2026. the terrorists that have made its way under previous administrations in the capital, U.S. capital. Our job is to work with our brothers and sisters, federal, state, and local, and make sure we hold people accountable,\u201d he said, \u201cSo, misinformation out there. Our community has been so supportive of me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there have been protests within the community and a movement called Deflock STJohns, which aims to provide<\/a> \u201cclear, accessible information on automated license plate recognition technology and its impact on our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to be filmed everywhere they go, or tracked every, single place they go,\u201d one organizer named Debra Campbell said<\/a> during a recent protest, blocking the Flock camera with a sign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One St. Johns County resident spoke to commissioners about Flock cameras, as one was installed reportedly facing her driveway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the recent data coming from the sheriff\u2019s office, I\u2019m going to call for more Flock cameras. Double, triple, even. I want the most that we can possibly have. I\u2019m requesting they be placed in the commissioner\u2019s office in front of the commissioners\u2019 houses. I want them at the sheriff\u2019s office in front of the sheriff\u2019s house, and I want them in front of every government employee\u2019s house,\u201d she said, making her point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis wasn\u2019t an issue pointing one at my driveway, so it shouldn\u2019t be a problem, right? Anytime the sheriff, commissioner, government employee leaves their house, a drone should detach from the camera and follow them wherever they go,\u201d she continued, using their own line that \u201cthis is for safety and to protect you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry. It\u2019s just a license plate reader. No big deal. I\u2019m not lying to you. You can trust us. We\u2019re here to help. We can also use unique identification numbers in real time as you move, tracking things like your Bluetooth, your car GPS, heck, even your dog\u2019s microchip, and no, this is definitely not a slippery slope of constitutional liberty,\u201d she continued, putting then all on blast and using their own argument against them. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have anything to hide, it shouldn\u2019t be a problem, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardwick continued to defend the cameras, pointing to their assistance in solving local crimes but stated that he would not go into details on the way they use the system, because that would be educating the criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m transparent as they come. We invite you to come in, but one thing I\u2019m not going to do, I\u2019m not going to educate these damn criminals and tell them how we\u2019re actually using this system. My job is to educate the community and support the community,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week spoke about the Flock cameras and said Floridians have a right to be concerned about Flock cameras at every turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s been stronger on law enforcement than me. But I don\u2019t want to have this become a surveillance state. I don\u2019t want there to be a situation \u2013 and that\u2019s why we wanted an AI bill of rights,\u201d he said, noting the state is lacking information as these are operated locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just like they\u2019re doing it, so we don\u2019t even really know, you know, like the police department or whatever. And when I see like a police officer using this to track like an ex-girlfriend, I\u2019m like, you know, what the hell\u2019s going on, you know, with this?\u201d DeSantis said, likely Kentucky police officer arrested<\/a> for using Flock to track his ex-girlfriend over 2,000 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut this has happened very quickly,\u201d he continued. \u201cI mean, this is in the last few years. I mean, I think when I became governor, they had readers, but it was more to toll people going through the service plazas and or the toll plazas\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut yeah, I think it\u2019s I think people are right to be concerned, and I think you got to have protections for for people. But go after criminals, great. Let\u2019s all do that. But surveilling just regular Floridians\u2019 movements and how that data is used, you know \u2013 that\u2019s a bird of a different feather,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four former Savannah Police Department employees including three officers in neighboring state Georgia were arrested Friday after a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) probe into misuse of the department\u2019s flock camera system. As Breitbart News reported<\/a>, they \u201cface charges of misuse of the Flock license plate reader system, and the three officers face an additional charge of violation of oath of office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another instance, a South Carolina police department fired an officer after she allegedly used<\/a> the Flock camera system to \u201crun a former romantic partner\u2019s license plate 166 times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is among lawmakers trying to get to the bottom of Flock\u2019s surveillance system, launching<\/a> an investigation into the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe overwhelming majority of Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong. Instead of serving discrete local investigations, as contemplated by our constitutional processes and safeguards, these camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search,\u201d he wrote in a letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley, adding that it has led to \u201cabuse and misuse of personal data.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This sheriff should get voted out of office if you care about your county. And actually, most people against Flock ALPR camera warrantless surveillance actually support law enforcement, so this sheriff is spinning propaganda and disingenuous. And lets call it plainly, lazy. Consequently, I’ve heard there is a challenge for Halloween to vandalize Flock ALPR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":7}},"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18564"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18567,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564\/revisions\/18567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}