The town of Fort Myers Beach has been paying Flock $15,000 per year for 6 cameras. On Wednesday, the Town Council voted to cancel the contract with Flock and remove the cameras from the island at the recommendation of Town Manager Will McKannay.
The data from the cameras was being used by the Lee County Sheriff’s department to help them solve crimes that take place on the island. The town did not have an inter-local agreement for the cameras with LCSO, nor did they have access to any of the content from the cameras.
Town Manager Will McKannay said, “I am not comfortable with the current contract structure, under which we pay only for camera installation but have no role in operating or monitoring them, and no oversight of those who do. LCSO monitors the LPRs, and while we have a strong relationship with them and no specific concerns about their trustworthiness or compliance practices regarding the cameras, we currently have no formal agreements in place with LCSO to protect the town’s interests. If such agreements are established in the future, I may recommend reinstating the LPRs at that time.”
The contract, after being signed in May of 2022, automatically renewed every year. The town must pay a cancellation fee of $500 per camera for a total of $3,000. According to the contract the town is entitled to a refund for the cameras prorated for any fees for the remaining term.
There has been a huge public outcry across the state of Florida about the cameras. Some people feel the data can be abused while others are complaining abot a mass surveliance state.
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July 15 2020 an “unknown gunman” open fired on people at Lani Kai and killed Johnny Johnson. It happened in front of cameras. I haven’t heard anything more about it in 6 yrs.
After Ian, a “contractor” and his wife were working in the area and i hired him to remove the debris from my pool. yard, garage, etc. I had debris stacked 8 ft. tall. So they camped on our property since we were not able to live there. I found out they were stealing our things and taking them to a storage unit. We kicked them off the property and they moved onto a lot a few doors down. I called the cop because I wanted my property they stole. I had it on camera and you can see everything he was going. He was loading up his trailer and hauling it away.He had stolen thousands of dollars of tools. I called the Sheriff and 2 of them came. We showed them the videos from our security cams and the Deputies claimed they could not do anything since they didn’t see the crimes happen themselves. They totally defended the thieves. So as you can see, cameras really serve no purpose.
This stems from a national problem of law enforcement abusing the system by stalking and harassing some individuals. I have no problem with cameras used for lawful purposes. At this point, abuse outweighs legitimate purposes. Someone HAS to be held accountable
Very happy to hear this decision!
Privacy is important. Surveillance doesn’t respect the principal of innocent until proven guilty.
I absolutely support it. I think that it is money well spent on a system that has the potential to keep our residents and visitors safe. Your phone tracks anyone that carries one. Assuming that someone who is doing something that they wouldn’t want tracked, given the forethought, probably wouldn’t be carrying one. As to the historical side of things. Since these are typically installed on state maintained roads and roadways. They have to be pre-approved by someone. And approval typically is the advantage of who carries the most votes, good or bad.
Maybe the government should just install cameras inside everyone’s home and car because you should only care about it if you are doing something wrong. Seems like a good argument.
It’s not even close to the same thing. There are potentially very private things that happen in your home that most certainly are not illegal. If you are doing those same things in public, you deserve to get caught and punished.
Why doesn’t Lee County take over the contract as the cameras are actually installed on their roadways and beneficially used by the Lee County Sheriff’s office to which we pay taxes and fees toward.
This past Monday, the state revoked all permits for these license plate reader cameras and ordered local governments to take them down within 30 days. I don’t think they had much of a choice.
Not quite.
The FDOT order only applies to cameras in the state right-of-way on state highways.
What a ripoff! Finally a sound decision made by town management.
Unlike the 580000.00 spent on consultants.
Biggest waste of money and intrusion on citizens 4 th amendment-
Thrilled to hear these may be eliminated. No need for this , law enforcement needs to do their job. More than enough cameras all over society without big brother and Big Govt having them .
This is just one of many ways that law enforcement does their jobs. You do realize that you are already been filmed and recorded by most private business’, the second you arrive on their property. Further, the largest purveyor of digital tracking is already in your pocket! One last thing. What big government party has been in the majority in Florida, for the last 26 years. Wonder who authorized all of those cameras?
So you do support the town spending $15k since it helps law enforcement? Since our phones track us you don’t support the cameras? The cameras are the Republicans fault? Where are you going with this? Please bring your A game.