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                    "Just outside of Tallahassee, nestled among rolling hills and pecan groves of Florida\u2019s Big Bend region, Jefferson County is one of the most rural parts of the state. With only 16,000 residents, it\u2019s also the only county in Florida with no traffic lights, a fact many locals will tell you with pride.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThe farmers, retirees, and small business owners who call the county home have long worked to preserve its distinct rural character. In 2020, residents pressured Jefferson County commissioners to pass a resolution opposing a proposed toll road, arguing it would invite national chains and destroy the region\u2019s pastoral landscape. Florida lawmakers later removed Jefferson County as the planned terminus of the road. Last year, residents again packed public meetings when a Love\u2019s Travel Stop was proposed. Despite the revenue the project promised the county, the proposal was ultimately withdrawn after failing to gain enough support.\n\n\n\nSo it was a shock for Jefferson County residents to learn over the summer that a sprawling network of automated surveillance cameras was quietly taking root across the county.\n\n\n\n\u201cAs far as I know, we weren\u2019t notified. We didn\u2019t get to vote on it,\u201d Kiley Haselden, a 28-year-old farmer who grew up in Jefferson County, told Bolts. \u201c[The cameras] just showed up, and people started noticing.\u201d\n\n\n\nRecords reviewed by Bolts found that the Jefferson County Sheriff\u2019s Office has been paying for Flock Safety\u2019s automated license-plate readers (ALPRs) since at least 2023, building an extensive network across the county.\u00a0\n\n\n\nDeflock.org, a crowdsourced map of these cameras, has flagged Jefferson County as home to 44 automated ALPRs\u2014about 28 cameras per 10,000 residents\u2014making it one of the densest license-plate-reader networks in the country, according to the map. Most of the cameras listed on the map are identified as Flock devices. Jefferson County Sheriff Mac McNeill had previously touted the technology\u2019s potential to help fight crime and improve public safety.\u00a0\n\n\n\nBut now, after years of expansion, growing opposition to the tech is causing this network to be dismantled.\u00a0\n\n\n\nOn Aug. 31, McNeill announced that Jefferson County would end its license-plate-reader program and deactivate the cameras.\n\n\n\n\u201cAfter careful consideration and listening to the public\u2019s feedback\u2014including both those who supported and those who opposed the use of this technology\u2014I have made the decision to discontinue the use of FLOCK/LPR camera technology in Jefferson County,\u201d McNeill wrote in a Facebook post.\n\n\n\nMcNeill\u2019s announcement came just hours after a decision by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration to remove Flock cameras from state roads. And it added to other Florida law enforcement agencies that have decided to end their ALPR programs, part of growing pushback in this and other red states against Flock cameras, broadening the coalition from civil rights advocates on the left who\u2019d primarily pushed against this surveillance network in recent years.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThe order by the Florida Department of Transportation revoked existing permits for automated license plate recognition systems, including Flock cameras, located within the right-of-way of roads on the state highway system, citing \u201cconcerning reports of misuse\u201d and \u201cdata privacy concerns.\u201d While the order does not amount to a statewide ban on Flock cameras, it requires agencies to remove cameras located in the state highway right-of-way.\u00a0\n\n\n\nMcNeill, a Republican who was appointed sheriff by then-Governor Rick Scott in 2017 and then elected by voters in 2018, wrote that Jefferson County\u2019s cameras were \u201cno longer operational\u201d and were not collecting vehicle information, though the full removal process could take months.\n\n\n\nHe defended the program as a way for a small, rural and fiscally constrained office to stretch limited resources\u2014a \u201cforce multiplier,\u201d in his words\u2014and said the technology had helped his deputies solve murders, locate missing and endangered people, recover stolen vehicles and identify suspects. His office did not provide specific cases to substantiate those claims.\n\n\n\n\u201cAt the same time, technology is advancing at a pace that can be difficult for our legal and judicial systems to keep up with,\u201d McNeill wrote. \u201cThere will always be a balance between giving law enforcement the tools necessary to protect our communities and ensuring that those tools are used in a manner that respects the constitutional rights and privacy of the citizens we serve.\u201d\n\n\n\nSince its founding in 2017, the Atlanta-based Flock Safety has rapidly expanded its surveillance network, operating more than 120,000 automated license plate readers across every state except Alaska. The devices use artificial intelligence to capture license plates and other details about vehicles, including their makes, models, and color. Information from individual jurisdictions is compiled into a searchable database that participating law enforcement agencies can use to access data collected by cameras operated by other agencies, allowing police to track where vehicles have been over time.\n\n\n\nBut the past year has seen a growing backlash against the technology, driven by privacy concerns and reports of police misusing the systems. Jurisdictions around the country have ended their Flock contracts, and the opposition has crossed party lines; DeSantis is the latest Republican state official to restrict Flock operations, just days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered all state agencies to pause funding for the cameras in late August. The GOP governors raised concerns about government surveillance and the collection of data on people who have not been accused of crimes. Meanwhile Angie Nixon, Democrats\u2019 U.S. Senate nominee in Florida, is warning that license-plate data could be shared with federal immigration authorities and says she would work to require warrants.\n\n\n\n\u201cThis is kind of something that everybody agrees on,\u201d Haselden told Bolts.\n\n\n\nJefferson County, in the Big Bend region, is largely rural and sparsely populated, with not even a single traffic light. (Facebook/Jefferson County Sheriff\u2019s Office \u2013 Florida)\n\n\n\nJefferson County resident DaLila Gebhard, a 54-year-old whose family has lived for generations in Wacissa, a tiny spring-fed river community in the county, didn\u2019t notice the cameras until several months ago. Now, she told Bolts, she can\u2019t drive more than a few miles without passing one\u2014including the three cameras located within a mile of her home.\u00a0\n\n\n\nShe told Bolts one of the cameras was recently knocked down and replaced within weeks. The sheriff\u2019s office did not respond to emails about the alleged incident.\n\n\n\n\u201cI know most people feel the same way I do, that it\u2019s invasive,\u201d Gebhard told Bolts. \u201cWe\u2019re not criminals.\u201d\n\n\n\nShe continued: \u201cWe are just a very tiny little village right here out in the middle of nowhere. You know, everyone knows everybody. So it\u2019s very odd that we\u2019ve got so much surveillance.\u201d\n\n\n\nNeither Gebhard nor Haselden recalls any county-led public forums to get feedback on bringing the cameras into the county. In a Facebook group called Jefferson County, FL Word of Mouth, residents recently debated the cameras. Some called for their removal, while others expressed mixed feelings. One asked: \u201cWhy were the residents not made aware before installation?\u201d\n\n\n\nRecords reviewed by Bolts show the sheriff\u2019s office budgeted $25,000 for Flock cameras in 2023-24, $42,947 in 2024-25 and $50,000 in 2025-26. The funds represented less than one percent of the office\u2019s overall budget each year, but were growing; it proposed $55,000 for Flock and Arlo technology in 2026-27.\n\n\n\nThe office\u2019s annual budgets, which included Flock cameras, went before Jefferson County commissioners and were approved each time, but commission meeting minutes reviewed by Bolts show little evidence of any public discussion about the surveillance technology.\n\n\n\nMcNeill did not respond to repeated interview requests and declined to answer questions from Bolts about why his office initially brought the cameras to Jefferson County, what prompted his decision to end the program, and what will happen to the sheriff\u2019s office\u2019s contract with Flock.\n\n\n\nIn an email to Bolts, Marie Rigdon, an executive assistant at the sheriff\u2019s office, said McNeill is \u201cnot available for questions or comments regarding this matter at this time.\u201d\u00a0\n\n\n\nMcNeill did explain some of his thinking at a public meeting on Sept. 3. Acknowledging community pushback, he told the crowd, \u201cWe try to use technology the best way we can. It just needs to be the right technology and the type of technology the community supports.\u201d\n\n\n\nFlock leases its cameras and manages installation, maintenance, and removal, according to its website. If an agency requests that cameras be turned off before removal, the company says it can deactivate them remotely at any time.\u00a0\n\n\n\nWhen an agreement expires or is terminated, Flock says platform access is disabled, cameras are remotely deactivated, and the company works with the agency to \u201cschedule physical removal.\u201d A Flock Safety spokesperson did not respond to questions from Bolts about Jefferson County\u2019s contract.\n\n\n\nThe physical removal of Flock cameras can take months even after an agency ends its contract. In Verona, Wisconsin, the city ended its agreement with Flock but found the cameras still installed months later. City officials said Flock was slow to remove them, and the city eventually covered the cameras with plastic bags until the company agreed to take them down.\n\n\n\nDuring the Sept. 3 commission meeting, a Jefferson County resident rose to the lectern to commend McNeill for getting rid of the Flock cameras.\n\n\n\n\u201cNormally I come here to complain, but today I\u2019m happy,\u201d the man said. He praised DeSantis for removing the cameras from state roads and McNeill for going \u201ca step beyond that\u201d by ending the sheriff\u2019s office\u2019s program on county roads as well. \u201cAmen, hallelujah,\u201d he said.\n\n\n\nHe called the cameras \u201ctremendously invasive,\u201d saying the technology creates \u201call sorts of bad things for innocent people like me that just ride on Highway 90 to go to church or go shopping.\u201d\u00a0\n\n\n\n\u201cWhy do I need to be in that database?\u201d he asked.\n\n\n\nMcNeill went to the lectern shortly afterward. He said the cameras had been a \u201cfantastic tool\u201d for his office but that he ultimately had to weigh their usefulness against residents\u2019 concerns about privacy and constitutional rights.\n\n\n\nHe said his office had been discussing what would happen to the Flock contract when it expired, but DeSantis\u2019 announcement accelerated the decision to end the program.\n\n\n\n\u201cWe want the community to feel comfortable in the type of policing we perform, and we want them to be comfortable in the way that we serve them,\u201d he said.\n\n\n\nMcNeill said he now hopes to redirect money that had been earmarked for the cameras toward hiring another sheriff\u2019s office deputy, something the resident who spoke had previously written the sheriff to suggest.\u00a0\n\n\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s where we should have our money going,\u201d the man said. \u201cActual humans solving actual crimes.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\tSign up and stay up-to-date\n\t\t\t\t\tGet timely updates about pressing stories and elections."
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