The debate surrounding Flock license plate reader cameras in Florida has apparently moved beyond complaints and into damaged equipment. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office says one person has now been arrested, another is wanted, and a third incident involving a damaged camera is under investigation.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies arrested an individual in connection with damage done to a Flock camera at Airport Road and Main Street in Destin on August 16. The person, who was not identified in the department’s post, was charged with felony criminal mischief and booked into the Okaloosa County Jail.
Authorities are also pursuing another person accused of damaging a separate Flock camera, with the sheriff’s office saying a warrant is pending in that case. Meanwhile, another damaged camera was discovered along Highway 90 near the Walton County line, adding a third incident for investigators to sort through.
Interestingly, none of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office’s Flock cameras are currently operating. The department says every one of its cameras was deactivated on September 1, although it stressed that the decision to shut them down was unrelated to the criminal investigations involving the damaged equipment.
Sheriff Says Deactivated Doesn’t Mean Free To Destroy
Sheriff Eric Aden acknowledged that residents are free to disagree with the department’s previous use of license plate reader technology, including speaking publicly against it. His department’s position, however, is that those objections don’t give anyone permission to physically damage equipment belonging to a private company.
“People are free to disagree with the prior use of this technology. They’re free to speak out against it,” Aden said. “What they are not free to do is destroy someone else’s property.”
That distinction is particularly important here because the cameras belong to Flock rather than the people accused of damaging them. As the sheriff’s office put it, destroying someone else’s property can remain a crime regardless of whether that property is active, deactivated, owned by an individual, or owned by a corporation.
Why One of the Camera Cases Became a Felony
Florida’s criminal mischief law covers intentionally and maliciously damaging another person’s real or personal property, and the severity of the offense can depend in part on the amount of damage caused. The sheriff’s office did not provide a damage estimate in its announcement, but specifically said the person arrested over the August 16 incident faces a felony criminal mischief charge.
The department also pushed back against the idea that damaging the cameras could be justified because of constitutional objections to license plate reader technology. According to OCSO, the use of LPR cameras has not been deemed unlawful or ruled unconstitutional, while Flock retains the same rights as another property owner when its equipment is damaged.
For now, the September 1 shutdown means OCSO’s own Flock cameras aren’t scanning plates, but that doesn’t make the equipment abandoned property. With another arrest warrant pending and investigators looking into the newly discovered damage near the Walton County line, the argument over the cameras may have outlived the cameras’ actual operation.