Oviedo to remove Flock system after fake camera ruffles feathers

Oviedo’s controversial Flock license plate reader cameras are officially coming down.

Following a nearly two-hour-long City Council work session, council members instructed city staff to both not add funding for the cameras into the upcoming 2026-27 budget and to have them removed “immediately.”

The decision comes on the heels of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming out against them and the Florida Department of Transportation ordering them removed from right-of-ways that are part of the State Highway System within 30 days. Multiple counties, including Seminole, also suspended or ended the use of them.

The cameras had come under fire in Oviedo after it was revealed police had used a fake Flock camera as bait in order to catch potential camera thieves, which put the city briefly in the national spotlight.

At the work session, more than a dozen people, including former Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, spoke out against the cameras, citing Fourth Amendment rights, privacy and misuse of the cameras by law enforcement officials nationwide.

“Flock has created a system where we, as free citizens in our republic, must prove our innocence,” Fishback said. “That is the wrong way to think about what we are signing up here for.”

Following the public comments, Flock representative Karl Bach gave a presentation about the company, the cameras and its software, and took questions from the City Council. 

After significant back-and-forth and confirming that funding for the cameras was not yet in the city’s upcoming budget, the City Council made the decision to not have it added and have the cameras removed before the end of the lease agreement, which runs through the end of September.

Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman said the decision was “not unanticipated.”

City Manager Bryan Cobb said the removal of Oviedo’s eight cameras could take up to a few weeks, depending on if the city is able to remove them on its own, or if Flock has to uninstall them.

Watch video of the meeting here:

Oviedo Community News will have a more in-depth recap of the Flock camera work session in our Thursday newsletter