DYSTOPIAN // FLORIDA
Florida / Make Them Answer

Demand They
Answer For It

Governor / Senators / Congress / Sheriff / Commission / Mayor
Start At The Top

The Governor Already
Made This Argument

In March 2023 Governor Ron DeSantis made Florida the first state to ban a central bank digital currency. His stated reason was that it would let government track ordinary people.

“The Biden administration’s efforts to inject a Centralized Bank Digital Currency is about surveillance and control.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis, March 20, 2023

“A Central Bank Digital Currency is the cornerstone of a federal government that could track each and every transaction. There would be no privacy, and if there is no privacy, there are no rights.”

Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis, same announcement

Florida banned a currency because it might one day let government see what people buy. Florida agencies already record where people drive, today, and share it beyond the state without a warrant. The principle is the same either way.

Write The Governor

Executive Office of the Governor, Tallahassee, FL 32399
flgov.com contact form

Governor DeSantis, In 2023 you signed the nation's first ban on a central bank digital currency, and you said plainly that it was about stopping government surveillance of ordinary people. Your CFO put it more directly still: if there is no privacy, there are no rights. I agree with that. I am writing because Florida law enforcement agencies already operate systems that do what you warned a digital dollar would do. Automated license plate readers photograph every passing car and build a searchable history of where people go. At least one Florida agency also holds a facial recognition contract. None of it required a warrant, and in most counties none of it required a vote. I am not asking you to regulate this, audit it, or require better disclosure. Surveillance of people accused of nothing is not made acceptable by better recordkeeping. I am asking you to end it. Direct Florida agencies to terminate their license plate reader and facial recognition contracts, take the cameras down, delete the movement histories held on people who were never charged, stop purchasing location and biometric data from commercial brokers, and stop sharing this data with out of state and federal agencies. A free state does not keep a log of where its residents drive. [YOUR NAME], [CITY], Florida
Where The Real Power Sits

Four Offices That
Can Actually Stop It

Most of this is decided locally, by people whose names are on a ballot and who almost never hear from anyone about it.

Signed a law against exactly this
Gov. Ron DeSantis
Banned a digital currency because it would let government track each transaction. Plate readers already do it.
Contact The Governor
U.S. Senate, Florida
Sen. Rick Scott
Sen. Ashley Moody
Plate data reaches federal agencies through national sharing networks. Ask what they are doing about warrantless federal access.
Contact Your Senators
U.S. House of Representatives
Your Member
Of Congress
Federal agencies have queried local camera networks without warrants. Your representative can demand an accounting.
Find Your Representative
The ones who actually decide
Your Sheriff,
Commission & Mayor
Sheriffs are elected in all 67 counties and sign the contracts themselves. Commissions adopt the budget every September. Cities issue the permits.
Find Yours

Copy this. Send it today.

I am a Florida resident. I am writing about the automated license plate readers and facial recognition systems operated by agencies in this state, and I am asking you to end them. These systems photograph and record the movements of people who are suspected of nothing. They keep that history. They share it with agencies outside Florida and with federal agencies. In most counties no resident was ever asked, and no public body ever took a recorded vote. In Carpenter v. United States the Supreme Court held that tracking a person's movements over time requires a warrant, because it gives government what the Court called near perfect surveillance. Article I, Section 23 of the Florida Constitution goes further than the federal Fourth Amendment and guarantees every Floridian the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into private life. I am not asking for this surveillance to be better managed, better audited, or better disclosed. Managed surveillance of people accused of nothing is still surveillance of people accused of nothing. I am asking you to end it. 1. Terminate existing license plate reader and facial recognition contracts and do not renew them. 2. Remove the cameras and delete the data already collected on people who were never charged with anything. 3. Prohibit Florida agencies from buying location, movement, or biometric data from commercial data brokers, which is how the warrant requirement is currently avoided. 4. Prohibit sharing any such data with out of state or federal agencies. 5. Require a recorded public vote in open session before any Florida agency acquires surveillance technology of this kind again. A free state does not track the movements of people who have done nothing wrong. [YOUR NAME], [YOUR CITY], Florida
The letter that worked

Ask Your County
What It Operates

Every agency in this state has to answer you. Not a journalist, not a lawyer, you. Article I, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution and Chapter 119 of the statutes give any person the right to inspect government records. No fee to ask. No form. No reason required, and an agency may not ask you why you want them.

This is the language that eventually forced four Sumter County agencies to produce documents after every one of them had said it had none. Address it to your sheriff and to your county commission separately, because they buy different things and one will point at the other.

To the Records Custodian, This is a request under Article I, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution and Chapter 119, Florida Statutes. I am requesting the following records for the period January 1, 2018 to the present. 1. All contracts, agreements, quotes, purchase orders, invoices, and renewal documents with any vendor of automated license plate readers, camera systems, video aggregation platforms, or facial recognition software. This includes but is not limited to Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, Vigilant Solutions, Axon, Fusus, Community Connect, Genetec, Rekor, and NDI Technologies. 2. The number and physical location of every automated license plate reader operated by, installed for, or accessible to this agency, including any mounted on trailers, poles, or vehicles. 3. All data sharing agreements, memoranda of understanding, and interlocal agreements governing who may search this data, including any agreement permitting access by out of state or federal agencies. 4. The retention schedule and retention policy for plate reader data, camera footage, and any derived records. 5. Audit logs of searches performed against any plate reader or camera system, including the date, the searching agency, and the stated reason for each search. 6. All records describing facial recognition, face matching, or biometric identification capability available to this agency, whether or not it is currently in use. 7. All grant applications, awards, and budget line items funding any of the above. 8. Any records of a public vote, agenda item, or public notice regarding the acquisition of the above. Please note the following. If you withhold any record or portion of a record, Section 119.07(1)(e) requires that you state the basis for the exemption in writing and cite the specific statutory provision, including the exempt language itself. A blanket claim of exemption is not sufficient. If you determine that no responsive records exist for any numbered item above, please state which item, and describe which systems, custodians, and repositories you searched to reach that conclusion. If you anticipate any charge, please provide an itemized estimate in writing before performing the work, and note that Section 119.07(4) permits a special service charge only where the request requires extensive use of resources. Please acknowledge receipt of this request and provide the records in electronic format. [YOUR NAME] [YOUR EMAIL]

When they tell you there are no records

In Sumter County every agency initially said it had nothing. One of them later produced an email from its own employee to a Flock Safety representative. Do not treat a denial as the end of it. Write back and ask which systems and custodians were searched, and ask them to put the answer in writing. That question is what produced the documents on this site.

Section 119.12 provides that a court shall award attorney fees against an agency that unlawfully refuses access, if you gave the agency written notice of the violation at least five business days before filing suit. Agencies know this. Citing it changes the conversation.

Add Your Name

The Florida
Surveillance Petition

To the Governor, the Legislature,
and every Sheriff in Florida:

We, the undersigned residents of Florida, do not consent to being tracked. We are not asking for these systems to be regulated, audited, or disclosed more thoroughly. We are asking for them to be removed. A government that records where its residents go, every day, without suspicion and without a vote, is not made acceptable by paperwork.

  1. End the programs. Terminate every license plate reader and facial recognition contract held by a Florida agency, and do not renew them.
  2. Take the cameras down and delete the movement histories already collected on people who were never charged with anything.
  3. No buying our data. Prohibit Florida agencies from purchasing location, movement, or biometric records from commercial data brokers.
  4. No sharing. Prohibit transfer of any such data to out of state or federal agencies.
  5. A recorded public vote in open session before any Florida agency ever acquires surveillance technology of this kind again.
  6. A full public accounting of what was bought, what it cost, and who authorized it.
— Floridians have signed.
This site keeps a count and nothing else. Your name is not stored here, it is sent from your own email to the address above, so there is no signer list on this server for anyone to request or subpoena. We do not ask for your email address at all.