St. Johns County Sheriff defends Flock cameras, cites crimes solved as commissioners vote to approve $1.9B 2027 budget

St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick made a passionate defense of the department’s use of the Flock Safety license plate reader system at Tuesday’s final budget hearing, detailing crimes solved by the technology while acknowledging the department needed to tighten its data practices.The meeting drew public comment from residents concerned about civil liberties and data privacy — and it ended with commissioners agreeing to take two weeks to review legal options before making any decisions about the cameras.How the system worksThe St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says it began using license plate reader technology in 2017 with a company called Vigilant, which was later acquired by Motorola. The department has since switched to the Flock Safety system.The Sheriff’s Office said when a Flock camera photographs a license plate, the plate is automatically checked against the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC) — the same databases law enf