New license plate readers spark privacy concerns in Coral Springs
.png "Flock license plate readers have been installed around Coral Springs following approval of a state grant last year.")
Coral Springs residents are raising the alarm about Flock cameras recently installed around the city.
The license plate readers, purchased with a state grant, now cover all major roads leading into and out of Coral Springs and can be found across Broward County.
While some have argued that they help solve crimes more quickly, others have shared stories about their abuse.
Here’s what to know.
What are Flock cameras?
Flock cameras are interconnected, automated license plate readers used by police departments and businesses across the United States.
The devices snap a picture of every license plate that passes by and run them through an extensive database of crime reports and information requests.
Its parent company, Flock Safety, aims to eliminate all crime through surveillance tech — and has reached an $8.4 billion valuation.
Critics say the products used to catapult the company to success aren’t making life safer. Instead, they say the devices are being used to violate Americans’ fundamental rights.
Why are people concerned about Flock?
Advocates on issues from free speech to privacy and domestic abuse have raised the alarm about the cameras.
“If your police start using Flock, they could target you just because some algorithm has decided your movement patterns suggest criminality,” The American Civil Liberties Union’s Jay Stanley wrote in a July 2025 article.
News outlets across the country have documented police using the cameras for stalking, domestic abuse and immigration enforcement. False arrests and data breaches have also put everyday people in harm’s way.
This includes widely publicized cases where a Texas woman suspected of seeking a legal out-of-state abortion was followed for days using the devices, and numerous cases where police officers were caught stalking current and former partners with the technology.
Following the incidents, residents in Oregon, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Washington, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois and Texas have taken steps to eliminate their cities’ contracts with Flock.
Coral Springs — and South Florida — could be next.
What do Coral Springs residents have to say?
Lifelong resident Louis DeSantis brought the issue to the City Commission’s meeting on June 17. He requested that the city consider canceling its contract with Flock Security to protect residents’ privacy.
“Allow us to live and travel free without being surveilled on a constant basis,” DeSantis said.
Commissioner Joe McHugh responded to DeSantis’ request.
“As a former law enforcement officer, I understand your concern about invasion of privacy, but I will tell you the success that we had, not only catching fugitives, catching homicide suspects, catching stolen vehicles, catching missing people, people that are missing — we see them go through a Flock camera,” McHugh said.
“It has been a tremendous success to the city of Coral Springs and to the residents of Coral Springs.”
What are Coral Springs police doing with Flock cameras?
Over 10,000 results appear when searching “Coral Springs” on Have I Been Flocked, a website that uses public records to track police departments’ Flock database searches.
According to the site, “These are some of the searches performed by Coral Springs FL PD. We have seen a total of 82,179 searches for this agency, performed by 96 persons over 1,236 days between 12/23/2022 and 5/11/2026 (10 users were active in the most recent six months).
“The logs are limited to searches seen by an agency that has released audit logs. In most situations, this means that the results below will be limited to nationwide searches. Statewide or local searches are not generally visible.”
Most of the queries cast a wide net — a month’s worth of captures from over 6,000 cameras.
The most common reasons for the searches included:
- Burglary, stolen property, theft
- Missing and endangered persons
- Traffic infractions
One standout case included searches related to the death of former Coral Springs vice mayor Nancy Metayer, who investigators say was killed by her husband, Stephen Bowen, on April 1.
She was the commission member who led the unanimous vote to approve the grant that funded the police department’s purchase of the cameras.
“We want to make sure our residents feel safe,” Metayer said. “We want criminals to know that if they come to our city we will find them.”
The Coral Springs News requested additional records regarding the department’s use of the devices and was awaiting officials’ response as of June 22.
