New surveillance tool is coming to Coral Springs. Why some call it controversial
Coral Springs is set to expand its Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) after voting unanimously to accept a $500,000 grant from the state, including adding what some say is controversial surveillance technology to its existing arsenal.
The RTCC launched in 2020 and includes surveillance cameras and several license plate readers with a live feed used by the Coral Springs Police Department.
According to public records gathered by Atlas of Surveillance, the city also has access to facial recognition and drones for investigations.
“This [grant] is to enhance our current Real Time Crime Center and also to ensure we are investing in software to ensure that we are doing the best work we can,” Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen told the Coral Springs News on Monday, Nov. 17, a few days after she led the City Commission’s unanimous vote to accept the grant.
“We want to make sure our residents feel safe, and we want criminals to know that if they come to our city we will find them.”
The state grant, requested by City Manager Catherine Givens, will go toward new monitor screens and controls, a cloud-based CCTV system, additional license plate readers, and software for faster information processing and sharing across multiple jurisdictions.
Over half of the money will go to Flock Safety, a tech company whose stated goal is to eliminate all crime in the United States.
In May, 404 Media published a story about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers using Flock cameras in roughly 4,000 cases. A week later, the outlet also reported on another instance during which Texas law enforcement officials searched the company’s nationwide database for a woman who they believed had gotten a legal abortion in another state.
Civil liberty advocates have also sounded the alarm. The American Civil Liberties Union’s Jay Stanley has written multiple articles about how omnipresent AI-backed surveillance creates a chilling effect on free speech and movement.
“If your police start using Flock, they could target you just because some algorithm has decided your movement patterns suggest criminality,” he wrote in a July article.
In response, residents in Oregon, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Washington, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois and Texas have taken steps to stop their cities’ use of the technology.
The company argues that they “provide the tools for communities to decide how they enforce their local laws and norms,” and participate in democratic processes that allow these tools to be implemented.
“Our products are all fully customizable, so law enforcement and cities can solve crime, retain the data, and enforce the local laws that are important to them,” Flock’s privacy and ethics page reads.
“Flock’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) network operates as a single point of failure that can compromise — and has compromised — the privacy of millions of Americans simultaneously,” Sarah Hamid, Director of Strategic Campaigns at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Coral Springs News.
“Given how pervasive, sprawling and ungovernable ALPR sharing networks have become, the only ‘improvement’ we can rely on to protect people’s rights and safety is no network at all.”
Despite the backlash earlier this year, Forbes reporting indicates that the company has likely become even more powerful since then, broadening its capabilities and product offerings.
This includes software that would allow law enforcement to connect Flock and police databases to track individuals, not just license plates, as well as partnering with the private sector, including Amazon’s Ring camera network.
Coral Springs’ Real Time Crime Center has a similar system in place already called the Blue Shield, which allows residents and business owners to opt into sharing their camera feeds with police. According to the city’s website, the cameras will only be viewed if a crime has been reported in the area, and a business’ representative will be notified whenever this occurs.
The Coral Springs News reached out to the Coral Springs Police Department for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 2:06 PM.
