Winter Park Police Chief Adds New Rules for Flock Cameras
Chief Tim Volkerson said the cameras that capture license plates are helpful in investigations, but wants to respond to concerns about the potential for abuse
Aug. 13, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Police Chief Tim Volkerson said Winter Park’s three flock cameras provide valuable information when it comes to tracking down criminal suspects.
But he told the Voice this week that he also understands growing concerns about how the cameras are used and worries about the potential for abuse.
That’s why he put new rules into place this week that no longer allow out-of-state agencies to access Winter Park’s system, continue to prohibit access by federal agencies and limit his own officers from using the data except for in cases of current and active investigations.
In addition, he said he’s adding more checks to monitor for misuse. The camera manufacturer announced on Thursday it made its own changes to enhance accountability and has rolled out a new audit mechanism and will require law enforcement agencies to adopt it by the end of the year, though Volkerson said he had not heard from the company directly as of Thursday.
“We’re going to build in a more robust audit system,” Volkerson said. “We value the tool and the safety it provides our community, but we also value the trust of our community and will continue to work to maintain that trust.”
Flock cameras, which get their name because they are manufactured by an Atlanta-based company called Flock Safety, are mounted along roadways and photograph vehicles. They create a searchable database of license plate numbers and other details such as the vehicle’s make, model and distinguishing characteristics.
On Thursday morning, the company announced a set of changes and new features that it says are designed to increase transparency and responsibility and prevent misuse.
“Abuse of Flock technology, at any level, is unacceptable,” said a message on Flock Safety’s website. “We have strengthened safeguards over the past nine years, from basic audit logs to proactive monitoring. Sixteen weeks ago, we introduced Audit Assistance, which detects abnormal activity and flags it for administrator review. In recent weeks, those reviews have been associated with arrests of several law enforcement officers who allegedly abused the system. More than one-third of our customers have voluntarily adopted audit assistance.”
The company said agencies who use its cameras will be required to adopt the audit system by the end of the year and it will roll out a “proactive lockout” feature that automatically suspends a user’s access to the data if it detects abnormal searches.
In addition, the data recorded by the cameras will only be saved for seven days instead of 30 days unless an officer shows there’s a reason to retain the information for longer.
“Our analysis shows that over 90% of searches without a full plate are done within a week,” the statement said. “Evidence Mode, which will roll out in the coming weeks, addresses the exceptional cases that take longer: detectives can preserve specific [automated license plate reader] data as evidence for an active investigation in cold storage, consistent with existing laws and policies.”
In Winter Park, Volkerson said, three cameras have been in place on Lee Road, Fairbanks Avenue and Aloma Avenue for about five years. The lease for all three costs about $7,500 a year.
The cameras can be used in two ways: Police can search for a specific vehicle or tag number as part of an investigation or officers can program the system to alert them if when a vehicle associated with a crime is captured by one of the cameras.
Under the changes Volkerson is putting in place, outside agencies such as Orlando Police or the Orange County Sheriff’s Office will need to contact Winter Park PD in order to search data collected by Winter Park’s cameras. And the reverse is also true: Winter Park would need to contact other agencies if a case led them to require information from another city or county.
“It is a reciprocal network, so if we stop their access then we lose access going the other way as well,” he explained.
Last month his officers conducted between 50 and 60 searches.
As an example, Volkerson said the cameras proved helpful earlier this year when there were some residential burglaries along Phelps Avenue. He said his officers pursued a suspect but lost him. About 20 minutes later, they received an alert for the vehicle from a camera near South Orlando Avenue and pursued it again but did not capture the suspect. Eventually a different agency’s camera alerted that the vehicle was near Apopka and the suspect was arrested.
“It’s a huge benefit for the safety of the city,” Volkerson said of the camera network.
Privacy concerns among law-abiding citizens are a key concern that has emerged as the cameras have become more widespread across Florida and elsewhere.
Earlier this summer, an automotive journalist was testing out a Range Rover for TheDrive.com, an automotive news outlet, when multiple police vehicles surrounded the SUV in a Kohl’s parking lot in Plymouth, Minn. The man’s wife was in the passenger seat.
“‘Are you armed?!’ the police officer screamed. ‘Get out of the car!'” Joel Feder wrote about his experience on TheDrive.com.
“After dropping off our Amazon returns, we’d just gotten back in the Range Rover and reversed maybe two feet out of the spot when four cop cars came flying out of nowhere and boxed us in,” he wrote. “The officers jumped out and started shouting. It’s a situation that can quickly and frequently turn bad, so as unprepared as I was, I followed their orders, got out with my hands up, and tried to figure out what the hell was happening.”
It turned out the license plate of the borrowed vehicle matched the plate of a stolen vehicle that had been entered into the Flock system incorrectly and that the police had been using the cameras to track the vehicle Feder was driving for days.
Closer to home in Tampa Bay, the St. Petersburg police chief recently addressed concerns about the cameras after a man drew national attention for wearing a t-shirt that reads “The Flock Blocker” as he protested the cameras by holding what appeared to be homemade shield on a long pole to block a camera lens.
And earlier this month a Haines City police officer was arrested and charged with official misconduct and other computer-related crimes after he used the Flock system for more than 700 searches over about two years to try to track the whereabouts of his estranged wife’s vehicle, according to a police investigation cited by news reports.
Volkerson said he understands the concerns and wants to ensure residents have trust in the system and understand police are using the data to try to solve crimes or find missing people, not track law-abiding people.
“I understand some of the complaints I have read,” he said. “I can see their point of view and I think it’s important to address that so we’re tightening things down so it does not become an issue. It’s the right thing to do.”
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
So they are outsourcing policing to Cameras.
Cut the budget and trim some police officers in theory this will enable them to do more with less.
Doesn’t really work like that. Still need a human to do the investigation and track a suspect down and make an arrest. The cameras are intended to provide evidence and leads.
Ban these cameras immediately! They are illegal, and reatrict freedom. Call or write you representatives.
If used properly, with appropriate safeguards such as the chief has mentioned, these cameras are beneficial. These have been around for years but now become an issue maybe because of our times and lack of communication from the police department with community members. The chief’s clarification is what kind of communications are needed. Same situation with drones. Communication is key.