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 “deFlock” the community to cities who want to defund the police.
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.
“Across the great state of Florida, here in St. Johns County, we’re not hearing the rhetoric that the rest of the country is actually preaching,” Hardwick said. “Matter of fact, we’re not really hearing the rhetoric across the great state of Florida because of our support and leadership, including Lieutenant Governor from … the capital in Tallahassee.”
Hardwick dismissed the concerns over mass surveillance as the “flavor of the day” 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.
“But here’s the one thing I say, and I’ve been blasting emails because I feel like it’s the flavor of the day, and we’ll 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,” he said, using crime-ridden Minneapolis as an example.
“Listen, we hold our people accountable in the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, we have had license plate reader technology, not just Flocks, since 2017. When I came on as sheriff, it’s on steroids now too, as well, because I do not want to be that community that cannot solve crime,” he said, defending the additional surveillance and dismissing critics as ignorant.
“A little bit of it is ignorance and misinformation of what it truly is,” he said, contending that Flock is American-owned and therefore more trustworthy.
“…and [it’s] operated out of just outside Washington D.C. in Virginia. They don’t share the information,” he said.
Further, the Florida sheriff said he owns the information and chooses what he wants to do with it.
“It’s mine. I own it. I choose to do what I want to do with the information …. We only share it with surrounding counties,” he said, admitting they also share it with the federal government.
“Do 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,” Hardwick continued, arguing that Flock is necessary to help track terrorists.
“It’s important that we track these people that are trying to kill us in America, whether it’s weapons of mass destruction, whether it’s …. 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,” he said, “So, misinformation out there. Our community has been so supportive of me.”
However, there have been protests within the community and a movement called Deflock STJohns, which aims to provide “clear, accessible information on automated license plate recognition technology and its impact on our community.”
“People don’t want to be filmed everywhere they go, or tracked every, single place they go,” one organizer named Debra Campbell said during a recent protest, blocking the Flock camera with a sign.
One St. Johns County resident spoke to commissioners about Flock cameras, as one was installed reportedly facing her driveway.
“In the recent data coming from the sheriff’s office, I’m going to call for more Flock cameras. Double, triple, even. I want the most that we can possibly have. I’m requesting they be placed in the commissioner’s office in front of the commissioners’ houses. I want them at the sheriff’s office in front of the sheriff’s house, and I want them in front of every government employee’s house,” she said, making her point.
“This wasn’t an issue pointing one at my driveway, so it shouldn’t 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,” she continued, using their own line that “this is for safety and to protect you.”
“Don’t worry. It’s just a license plate reader. No big deal. I’m not lying to you. You can trust us. We’re 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’s microchip, and no, this is definitely not a slippery slope of constitutional liberty,” she continued, putting then all on blast and using their own argument against them. “If you don’t have anything to hide, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
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.
“I’m transparent as they come. We invite you to come in, but one thing I’m not going to do, I’m not going to educate these damn criminals and tell them how we’re actually using this system. My job is to educate the community and support the community,” he claimed.
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.
“No one’s been stronger on law enforcement than me. But I don’t want to have this become a surveillance state. I don’t want there to be a situation – and that’s why we wanted an AI bill of rights,” he said, noting the state is lacking information as these are operated locally.
“It’s just like they’re doing it, so we don’t 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’m like, you know, what the hell’s going on, you know, with this?” DeSantis said, likely Kentucky police officer arrested for using Flock to track his ex-girlfriend over 2,000 times.
“But this has happened very quickly,” he continued. “I 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…”
“But yeah, I think it’s 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’s all do that. But surveilling just regular Floridians’ movements and how that data is used, you know – that’s a bird of a different feather,” he added.
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’s flock camera system. As Breitbart News reported, they “face charges of misuse of the Flock license plate reader system, and the three officers face an additional charge of violation of oath of office.”
In another instance, a South Carolina police department fired an officer after she allegedly used the Flock camera system to “run a former romantic partner’s license plate 166 times.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is among lawmakers trying to get to the bottom of Flock’s surveillance system, launching an investigation into the network.
“The 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,” he wrote in a letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley, adding that it has led to “abuse and misuse of personal data.”