Victory!

1,001 supporters. Here's the victory update:

VICTORY — THE CAMERAS ARE COMING DOWN

1,001 of you signed this. Here's what happened.

On August 31, the Florida Department of Transportation revoked its approvals for automated license plate readers on the State Highway System and gave agencies 30 days to remove them. FDOT cited misuse, data privacy, and surveillance concerns. Governor DeSantis, asked about license plate readers, said: "I think it's out of control."

That same afternoon, the Clay County Sheriff's Office announced that all License Plate Readers will be removed from Clay County roadways — going further than the state required. FDOT's order covered state rights-of-way only. Sheriff Cook ended the program countywide.

Ninety-five cameras. A $1.3 million contract signed in 2023 with no commission vote, no public hearing, and released to residents with the dollar figures blacked out.

They're coming down.

I want to be honest about what this petition did and didn't do. This was a statewide decision, driven by national reporting on how plate-reader data was being misused elsewhere — a police chief running 228 lookups on his ex-girlfriend, a city discovering 250 agencies it never authorized had searched its residents' data. I didn't cause that.

What 1,001 of you did was make sure Clay County was paying attention when it arrived. We read the contract. We asked questions in public. We mailed records requests. When the state moved, this county already understood what was at stake.

And thank you, Sheriff Cook. She didn't have to go beyond the state's order. She did. Clay County joins Franklin, Liberty, and Putnam counties in ending their programs entirely rather than doing the minimum. Credit where it's earned.

On the stormwater assessment — that fight isn't over and I won't pretend otherwise. What residents did accomplish: the mitigation credits got publicized to people who had no idea they qualified, hundreds of neighbors learned to check their own parcels, written objections went into the official record, and the hardship and disabled-veteran waivers — which began the budget process slated for total elimination — were put back on the table. That happened because people showed up and made noise. The rates, the credit standards, and the fairness questions remain live, and I'll keep pushing.

What's still outstanding on the cameras:

What happens to the data already collected since 2023? Removing a camera doesn't erase the record of where residents drove.

Is anything replacing them? Communities elsewhere ended one vendor's contract and signed with another within weeks.

And will the unredacted contract be released now? The reason given for blacking out the cost was operational sensitivity. The program is ending. That reason is gone.

I've put those questions to the Sheriff's Office in writing. Whatever comes back, I'll post it — and if it's clean, I'll say so as loudly as I've said everything else.

For months people said this concern was paranoid. That if you didn't like being photographed, you had something to hide. That asking about a contract meant you were anti-police.

Then the Governor of Florida called it out of control, the state pulled the permits, and four sheriffs ended their programs.

That's not one person being proven right. That's a state deciding the conversation was worth having — which is all any of us asked for.

Thank you. All 1,001 of you.

Integrity first. Service before self. Excellence in all we do.