LARGO, Fla. — Pinellas County commissioners stopped short Tuesday of ordering license plate reader cameras off county roads in and around St. Petersburg, choosing instead to wait and see what state lawmakers do with the technology during the 2027 session in Tallahassee.
The proposal, first brought by Commissioner Vince Nowicki, would have ended the county’s camera agreements and pulled automated license plate readers, including Flock Safety units, from county-controlled property and rights-of-way. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the board that passing it would change little. If the cameras had to leave county land, he said, his office would put them up on other roads.
Gualtieri said the county has a little under 300 fixed plate reader cameras, and every one of the Sheriff’s Office’s 560 patrol cars also carries plate reading equipment. He pointed to the state’s recent removal of readers from Florida Department of Transportation rights-of-way along Interstate 275 as an example of cameras being moved rather than eliminated.
Commissioner Rene Flowers said the cameras can help but become a problem when someone misuses them, and she suggested tighter rules on who can see the data and how long it is kept. Florida law now lets agencies hold plate reader data for as long as three years. Gualtieri said he expects legislators to shorten that window and promised to follow whatever the Legislature decides, adding that some agencies have run the systems without enough auditing.
The debate reaches into St. Petersburg, where the group DeFlock St. Pete wants City Council to cancel its Flock contract and take down about 50 cameras around the city. Concerns grew in September after a former Pinellas sheriff’s deputy was arrested, accused of running hundreds of plate reader searches to keep tabs on a woman.
The legislative session opens March 2, 2027. Until then, the cameras stay in place on Pinellas County roads.
Section: More St. Petersburg FL politics news
Filed under: St. Petersburg FL Politics News
