DeSantis has been a great governor. But now he’s making a new move.
And Ron DeSantis just made a sudden announcement that is raising eyebrows.
While Washington dithers on surveillance reform, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just did something Congress has failed to accomplish at the federal level for months: he’s actually taking action against the creeping surveillance state. According to a Florida Department of Transportation memo obtained by the Daily Caller, DeSantis has ordered every automated license plate reader camera removed from the state’s highway system within 30 days.
The order, issued Monday, covers Florida’s major interstates, including I-10 and I-75, and represents one of the most aggressive state-level pushbacks against Flock Safety’s controversial surveillance network anywhere in the country. If local law enforcement agencies or Flock itself don’t voluntarily comply within the 30-day window, the memo makes clear the state government will simply remove the cameras itself.
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. The order comes amid a wave of growing bipartisan alarm over how these automated license plate readers can be — and already have been — misused by both private companies and law enforcement officers who’ve turned taxpayer-funded surveillance tools into instruments of personal stalking and unauthorized tracking. DeSantis didn’t dance around the concern when pressed on it directly.
“But, you also have to say, okay, how could this be misused? And how could a private company misuse the data, but also law enforcement? We know there was an officer in Florida who was using the LPR data to track like an ex-girlfriend or something like that,” DeSantis said, referencing exactly the kind of abuse that’s turned privacy advocates across the political spectrum against Flock’s expanding camera network.
Florida’s move already appears to be triggering a broader retreat from Flock-style surveillance at the local level. Sheriff’s departments in Putnam, Liberty and Franklin counties all announced they’re ending their own license plate reader programs following DeSantis’s announcement, suggesting the governor’s action is having a real effect beyond just the state highway system itself.
It’s worth noting the limits of the order too, since DeSantis’s directive only applies to roads falling under the State Highway System. That means cameras could still legally remain in place on city and county roads unless Florida’s legislature acts to expand the restriction during its next legislative session. Still, for a governor who has repeatedly emphasized his support for law enforcement, this represents a meaningful check on a surveillance technology that’s expanded with remarkably little oversight or public debate in communities across the country.
The Florida Department of Transportation memo also makes clear this isn’t just a temporary pause — FDOT will be denying any future permit applications for these camera systems going forward, at least under the current administration’s policy. That’s a significant statement of intent from a state that’s often been at the forefront of pushing back against government overreach on a range of issues.
DeSantis was characteristically blunt when asked about the broader surveillance concerns during a Wednesday press conference at Florida International University in Miami, describing the current state of automated license plate reader deployment as simply “out of control.” Coming from a governor who’s spent years positioning himself as tough on crime and supportive of law enforcement, that kind of language carries real weight and should put pressure on other red-state governors to take a serious look at their own states’ surveillance camera deployments.
To be clear, DeSantis hasn’t turned into some kind of civil libertarian overnight on law enforcement issues broadly. He’s been careful to frame this as a targeted response to a specific and growing problem rather than blanket opposition to police having effective investigative tools. “I think people are right to be concerned,” DeSantis said, striking a balance between supporting legitimate law enforcement needs and pushing back against a surveillance apparatus that’s expanded well beyond what most Floridians probably realize is tracking their daily movements.
DeSantis has consistently argued that the ultimate solution to these surveillance concerns needs to come from the state legislature rather than executive action alone, and he’s repeatedly called for a comprehensive artificial intelligence bill of rights that would establish clearer, permanent guardrails around how these tracking technologies can be deployed and used. That’s a meaningful distinction, because it acknowledges that his current executive order, however welcome, isn’t a permanent fix.
That temporary nature of the order is worth emphasizing, since a future Florida administration could simply reverse this decision after DeSantis leaves office in January. Conservatives who want to see this kind of surveillance rollback made permanent should be pushing Florida lawmakers hard to codify these protections into state law before DeSantis’s term ends, rather than relying on executive memos that a different governor could undo with the stroke of a pen.
This move lands at a moment when lawmakers across the country, including a growing number of congressional Republicans, have been raising increasingly urgent concerns about the expanding reach of automated camera networks and the artificial intelligence systems increasingly layered on top of them to track and identify vehicles with startling precision. Yet as reported previously, not a single bill currently sits before Congress that would actually ban this kind of technology outright at the federal level, leaving states like Florida to lead where Washington has so far refused to act.
DeSantis’s willingness to take concrete executive action, rather than simply issuing statements of concern, sets a real example that other conservative governors would do well to follow. Whether Florida’s legislature steps up to make this rollback permanent, or whether the next occupant of the governor’s mansion quietly reverses course and lets Flock cameras creep back onto Florida’s highways, remains an open question. For now, though, Florida drivers can rest a little easier knowing their movements on the state’s major interstates aren’t being tracked and logged by a private surveillance company with a documented history of abuse.
