The Leon County Commission’s thinking has changed regarding automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and school zone speed cameras.
How did commissioners go from embracing these two different kinds of camera enforcement programs to rejecting both?
That’s the topic of today’s Speaking Of.
At their meeting on September 15th, the Leon County Commission unanimously moved to stop the use of ALPRs on county rights-of-way. These are often referred to as Flock cameras because Flock Safety is the name of a prominent vendor.
Commissioners also unanimously decided not to proceed with the school-zone speed-camera program, which only applies to the 8 district schools that are not inside Tallahassee city limits. Tallahassee police are still sending citations to violators at the other district schools.
Commissioners chose not to move forward with school speed cameras, largely over public confusion about their use and the lack of due process for fighting citations.
"I have tried very hard to articulate this to my constituents on my social medias and various forms of communication, and for the life of me, no one can understand how these things work," said Commissioner Brian Welch.
The speed cameras capture license plate numbers of vehicles that are speeding in school-zones during the school day, not just when those signs are flashing in the morning and afternoon. The citations are sent through snail mail to the owner of the vehicle.
The situation with ALPRs is different. These cameras capture license plates plus associated images and data. They are supposed to be a law-enforcement investigative technology. But central questions are in play about citizen surveillance, data access and retention, and government oversight of all of this.
A key issue that has come up repeatedly is that even when jurisdictions have said they have stopped using these cameras, the vendors that own the cameras may still be collecting surveillance data. They can still record the data and use the information.
“We have to defend the public trust, and who I don't trust here in this process is the private data vendors and the mass collection of data,” said Commissioner David O'Keefe.
So, the commission voted to give the vendors 30 days to take down the cameras. A sticking point mentioned by the county attorney is that while the county issued permits for placement of the cameras, it has no relationship with the vendors and therefore has no right to remove these cameras if the vendors don’t do as they’re told.
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