Flock license plate reader discussion leads to possible de-Flocking of Oviedo

Following passionate comments by residents and a robust discussion by the Oviedo City Council at its Aug. 17 meeting, the city decided to prepare a resolution that could end the city’s use of the controversial Flock license plate reader cameras. The resolution would remove the cameras from the entire city, with the decision coming less than a year after the Council approved them.

In September 2025, the Council adopted a resolution to lease eight Flock cameras and have them placed at the entrances of the city. That resolution provided up to $128,800 for a 60-month lease with the option of a two-year extension, and the camera installation was completed in February.

On Monday, the Council had a more than hour-long discussion about the cameras in the city.

[What do you think about Flock cameras in Oviedo? Share your thoughts with Oviedo Community News]

Oviedo Police Department officials gave a presentation at the meeting explaining in detail how the city uses the cameras, how they are accessed and by whom. You can see the full presentation here.

The computer-controlled cameras, which take still images of vehicles and license plates in Oviedo, use specialized software to convert the images into searchable data and can be checked against other databases for potential violations. “It is [artificial intelligence], and it does learn,” Oviedo Deputy Chief of Police Mike Beavers said, describing what information the software can gather, such as a vehicle’s type, color, make and model, as well as other identifying material, including bumper stickers.

According to the anti-Flock camera website DeFlock The USA, Seminole County has a reported 190 Flock license plate readers in operation.

Seminole County, and each city with a contract with Flock, has its own contract terms.

The data in Oviedo is currently accessible for 30 days before being automatically deleted from the system unless it is downloaded for an investigation, according to the Oviedo Police Department, and “if law enforcement has specific criminal intelligence about a vehicle associated with an investigation, the vehicle information, i.e. license plate, make, model, color, type and/or unique characteristic can be searched to see if a vehicle matching that description has passed by a [license plate reader] within a specific timeframe.

Beavers said at the meeting that Oviedo officers cannot take action solely on the data from the license plate readers, and they must independently verify it before any action is taken. All sworn officers who have completed the training for the cameras — “a vast majority” in the department, according to Beavers — have access to the internal system. 

Beavers said the data collected is housed by Flock, “but the information that comes from the eight cameras that we have, we own that information, and Flock, according to their public-facing information, they don’t share that information. It is our information, we own it, they store it and after 30 days it automatically falls off the rolls.” 

The Oviedo Police Department said at the meeting that any county or municipal agencies within a 500-mile radius can request access to the city’s camera data, and are automatically granted it. That radius could go as far north as North Carolina. To date, 926 agencies have been granted access. Beavers said the federal immigration agency ICE has not asked to have data shared with them and “if they did, our position, the policy says we do not, so we wouldn’t give them authorization to see it.”

While OPD says the cameras have helped with successful criminal investigations, Flock cameras have come under scrutiny throughout Florida and the country recently due to privacy concerns, potential hacking and inappropriate use by law enforcement officials.

“I definitely believe Oviedo PD is using these in good faith,” Council member Alan Ott said. “The concern that I have is … this goes into a database where people who don’t have these rules and procedures are able to access that same data and search for our residents using our cameras, people in other jurisdictions where that has been used in a way that’s abusive of the system, people stalking their exes, things like that.”

Sumter County suspended its use of the cameras following the arrest of a detective accused of accessing the data for information on her husband’s ex-wife, while other law enforcement officials throughout the state have been found using them for similar actions.

Beavers said “any suspected or alleged misuse of the system could result in immediate suspension of [Oviedo officers’] privileges and could also result in severe discipline up to and including termination.”

Quoting a resident who spoke earlier in the meeting who said “the consequences [of the cameras] are high,” Ott said “I think that that applies to many things with this: The consequences of a plate being misread are high, the consequences of a person in another jurisdiction abusing the system for their own personal reasons could be high.

“I don’t think you have to go much beyond that to say that this kind of system is a problem,” he said. “I don’t think the system is good enough currently to prevent abuse.”

In addition to police departments, businesses and homeowners associations can have Flock cameras installed, and if a resident sees one in the city, it does not always mean it is being used by law enforcement. 

“It’s whether you trust Flock or not, and we’re hearing people don’t trust Flock, and we’ve seen cases where we should not trust Flock,” Deputy Mayor Natalie Teuchert said. 

While the OPD does not publicize the exact locations of its cameras, websites like deflock.org map known and suspected Flock cameras throughout the country. 

A map of possible Flock cameras in the 32765 zip code (via deflock.org map)

Prior to the presentation and Council discussion, 10 residents spoke about the cameras, with nine speaking out against them, voicing concerns about privacy, the camera data being used for illicit purposes and potential mistaken-identity issues. Watch their testimonies here:

“I think our residents have made it pretty clear that the concerns are so big that we would rather have paid for it and walk away than to continue to have this amount of data be accessible within a 500-mile range,” Mayor Megan Sladek said. 

City Manager Bryan Cobb said he has asked Flock representatives to attend the Council’s Aug. 31 work session, and the city staff will begin working on the resolution that could end Oviedo’s use of the cameras.

“We can’t control the county, we can’t control the other cities,” Ott said. “Yeah, if we get rid of our Flock cameras here, maybe that’s just a drop in the bucket. But Oviedo is the drop in the bucket over which [the City Council has] purview, so whether other people are or not really doesn’t change whether it’s right to be doing it.”

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