St. Petersburg flock cameras: Police chief defends license plate readers

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - As debate grows over Flock cameras, the automated license plate reading cameras, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway is defending his department’s use of them.

Holloway says the cameras photograph vehicles and license plates — not people.

St. Pete police chief's defense

What we know:

The St. Petersburg Police Department started using the technology in 2021, and currently operates 50 cameras across the city. According to police, the devices capture images of license plates and vehicles to assist officers in locating missing persons, investigating crimes and recovering stolen vehicles. 

They can also eliminate vehicles that are not connected to an investigation.

"We're not monitoring people. We're monitoring incidents," Holloway said, addressing ongoing public skepticism. "I'm not going to convince everybody of that, but what I can tell you from the St. Petersburg Police Department is we want to use this so we can continue to make our city safer."

Cameras used in high-profile case

The backstory:

Department officials pointed to a recent high-profile case as evidence of the system's effectiveness. In July, investigators used Flock data to track a suspect's vehicle and quickly make an arrest following the fatal shooting of a city employee.

The other side:

Despite such successes, privacy advocates and critics have voiced concern regarding data retention and potential overreach. 

Officer accountability rules

Dig deeper:

Flock and St. Pete police only store the information for 30 days, the chief said. Officers seeking to search the Flock system must enter a specific report number or detail a legitimate law enforcement reason before initiating a search.

To enforce compliance, the department conducts monthly audits. Similar to random drug screenings, officers are selected at random each month for investigations into their use of department computers and phones. Holloway noted that any officer caught accessing the system for non-official reasons faces termination.

"They'll be held civilly liable if that person wants to sue them for running their tag or running their information. So, that's on that officer. If he or she is using this for police purposes, I will stand behind them 100%. If they're using it for personal reasons, they're on their own. They're going to have to figure out why they did it, and they have to explain one to the court, because they could possibly be charged also with a criminal charge, and they won't be working here at this police department," he said.

Questions have also been raised regarding inter-agency data sharing. Holloway clarified that outside law enforcement agencies cannot freely access St. Petersburg’s camera feeds. An agency chief or sheriff must submit a formal written request, explaining the necessity before data is released.

Flock as a company said that inter-agency data sharing is disabled by default and can only be enabled by the customer owning the data. The company added that every search conducted on its platform generates a permanent, unalterable audit trail.