The proliferation of Flock Safety and other brands of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) is raising alarms in cities across the country—and across the political spectrum. There are currently an estimated 140,000 cameras nationwide, including installations at the Beach and throughout Duval County and Florida.  

At issue is the AI-assisted capacity of these systems to track and compile detailed information on every car that comes into view and upload it into a nationwide database --- controlled by vendors --- that any law enforcement agency can search with few restrictions or oversight. While we recognize ALPRs can be a useful tool for law enforcement, we are concerned about their potential abuse and misuse.

Responding to growing public and legal concerns,  the Florida Department of Transportation recently ordered the cameras removed from state rights-of-way. The Duval County Sheriff's Department and police departments in Atlantic and Neptune Beach followed suit and suspended their use of the cameras. 

However, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department has decided to continue use of these cameras, citing their contribution to safety and crime solving. In light of this decision, we urge JBPD to review current policies and make the necessary changes to protect the privacy rights of residents by strengthening transparency and the oversight of these systems. Specifically, we ask JBPD to evaluate current policies and procedures and adopt guardrails that reflect these best practices:

• Limiting data retention to hours or days, not weeks or a month or more;
• Limiting data sharing by prohibiting local law enforcement from providing access to any other government entity unless they have a warrant for a felony crime that is recognized under local/state law;
• Limiting usage to felony investigations, missing persons cases, identifying unregistered/uninsured vehicles, and certain limited non-enforcement scenarios, like electronic toll collection, and
• Requiring annual usage reporting and placing limits on the availability of ALPR data via open records requests so it cannot be used for troublesome purposes like stalking or embarrassing a person for entertainment value

Each day these cameras remain active without these guardrails, they collect sensitive data that could be used to violate our rights. Please act now.