St. Lucie County in Florida will not investigate the ownership of several mysterious and unpermitted Flock cameras discovered during a countywide removal effort, leaving the devices’ origins and data usage unknown.
Unclaimed Surveillance Devices
As reported by The Washington Post, local residents remain troubled because they do not know who installed the cameras or how collected data might have been utilized. Hannah Galindo, a 31-year-old resident who campaigned to have the Flock cameras removed, expressed concern to the Post that sensitive information could be stored anywhere.
County officials located 12 unauthorized cameras in total during the sweep. A Flock spokesperson told the Post that city law enforcement eventually claimed five of the devices after a police department mistakenly instructed officers that multiple cameras could operate under a single permit, despite county regulations requiring individual permits for each device. Neither the surveillance company nor police departments in Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce that claimed some of the equipment will specify who issued that incorrect guidance.
Missing Investigation Resources
Records show that the Port St. Lucie Police Department expanded its Flock contract significantly over a three-year period, growing from $22,000 to $470,000 for 2025, which preceded the county mandate requiring the removal of cameras from county roads. Despite terminating that substantial contract, St. Lucie County spokesperson Erick Gill told the Post that the local government lacks the resources to determine who owned the remaining seven unpermitted cameras.
Galindo criticized the outcome to the Post, remarking, “It sounds like when you do something wrong, and you don’t want to get caught, and you kind of just want to sweep it under the rug.”
Gill explained that the primary objective of the county was simply to eliminate the unauthorized hardware rather than identify the owners. To facilitate this, the county granted owners a 30-day window to remove the devices voluntarily without being questioned.
