TEMPLE TERRACE — Flock cameras have become politically toxic in Florida in a hurry.
Temple Terrace doesn’t want its new school-zone speeding ordinance getting caught in the fallout.
Just weeks after approving an ordinance allowing cameras to catch speeders near city schools, the City Council voted unanimously last week to put the vendor-selection process and implementation of the program on hold amid a growing statewide backlash over automated license-plate readers and camera surveillance.
City Manager Carlos Baia recommended the pause, telling council members that the political ground surrounding the issue has shifted dramatically since the ordinance was approved Aug. 17.
Temple Terrace’s proposed school cameras would be used for a much narrower purpose than the Flock license-plate readers that have generated all the recent bad press. Rather than being used by law enforcement to identify vehicles potentially connected to crimes, the city’s cameras would be set up in school zones and flag vehicles traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit in designated school zones during limited periods around drop-off and pick-up.
The city hasn’t selected a vendor yet, so it’s unclear what cameras or technology would be used for the school zone program.
But Baia said those distinctions are becoming blurred during the recent debate.
“I’m asking for a pause in this process rather than continuing on this path and then getting to legislative session and finding out there’s five to ten different bills that want to restrict what we can potentially do with the cameras,” Baia said.
“There has been, just for lack of a better term, an explosion in terms of interest and debate over this issue of cameras,” he added, noting that Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in publicly last week, reportedly calling the cameras “out of control.”
The Florida Department of Transportation followed up by ordering the removal of all LPRs from state highways.
Baia said once Tallahassee gets involved in an issue, legislation could be close behind.
The city’s ordinance came after a traffic study found hundreds of potential speeding violations each day in school zones around Greco Middle, Woodmont Charter and Temple Terrace, Lewis and Riverhills elementary schools.
The council debated the program over three meetings, adding several safeguards to address privacy concerns.
Among them, Temple Terrace decided any vendor it selected would have to agree to using the cameras during limited periods around morning drop-off and afternoon pickup, rather than throughout the school day as allowed under state law. The city also sought restrictions on data retention and sharing.
Still, Baia said the recent statewide Flock debate had begun surfacing locally.
“We even noticed at the last council meeting where this issue came up, there were already people voicing similar concerns that have been throughout social media in the last week or so.”
Councilmember James Chambers agreed with Baia’s recommendation but lamented putting the program on hold because of a claim he has repeatedly made this year: Temple Terrace has a speeding problem.
“Since the start of school, I’ve noticed that there’s a lot more traffic violations,” Chambers said.
He said he didn’t know whether it was parents running late while dropping off their kids or people rushing to work, but he observed a car run a red light on 56th Street and Whiteway Drive, a “young man with a backpack on an e-scooter” passing cars on Inverness Avenue, and other drivers speeding on Whiteway and Druid Hills Roads, even though the city recently installed speed bumps in the area.
“If you don’t want cameras to come into the world,” Chambers said, “slow down.”
Councilmember Alison Fernandez, who was the only one to vote against the ordinance last month, supported the pause but said she was still opposed to cameras in general.
Mayor Andy Ross, who also raised privacy concerns during the council’s early debates, predicted the state would tackle the issue, and likely adopt the same safeguards Temple Terrace has already drafted, including how long data can be retained and limiting the sharing of it.
Pushing forward now only to be overridden by a state law, Ross said, could be a waste of time.
“I believe that this is a case of the world catching up to us,” Ross said. “I think we already had a lot of good discussion and put some safe guardrails on this, and I would venture to bet that when you see the outcome of the conversation at the state level, I bet their solution looks a lot like we already have.”
For now, Temple Terrace’s school-zone camera ordinance will remain on the books but will be unenforced while the city waits on Tallahassee.