The Tallahassee Police Department is providing city commissioners with a detailed defense of its use of automated license plate readers, emphasizing both the technology’s role in solving serious crimes and safeguards designed to prevent misuse. The issue is scheduled for discussion at the Sept. 9 Tallahassee City Commission meeting amid increased scrutiny of license plate reader technology by the state, Leon County and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office.
One distinction highlighted in the city agenda is that Flock Safety is a company, while automated license plate recognition, or ALPR, is the technology. TPD currently uses two ALPR platforms — Flock Safety and Vigilant — with 80 Flock cameras and 75 Vigilant cameras. The fixed cameras capture license plates and associated vehicle information that investigators can search for legitimate law enforcement purposes.
The systems are also different from TPD’s public-safety video cameras. Those cameras provide video footage associated with calls for service and investigations, while ALPR cameras automatically identify and create searchable records of license plates passing the cameras.
TPD Points to Major Cases
TPD says ALPR technology has played a role in several significant investigations.
According to the agenda, investigators used ALPR information during a 2025 investigation into approximately 14 bank robberies involving suspects traveling from Texas along the Interstate 10 corridor and frequently changing license plates. The information helped investigators reconstruct vehicle movements and connect related incidents.
In another case, following a February 2025 armed robbery and double homicide at a Gadsden County convenience store, investigators identified the suspect vehicle. A Flock alert later detected the vehicle traveling through another jurisdiction, helping officers coordinate across agencies and eventually capture the suspect in Suwannee County.
TPD also reports ALPR technology contributed to resolving several attempted murder or homicide investigations between 2022 and 2026, including the November 2022 FAMU basketball court homicide and 2025 and 2026 Tallahassee homicide cases. In March 2026, officers used ALPR data to locate an elderly person with dementia who had been reported missing.
Flock provides an additional benefit because participating law enforcement agencies can share information. TPD determines which agencies may access its Flock data, while other agencies decide whether their information is available to Tallahassee investigators. That can allow investigators to follow vehicles beyond the reach of TPD-owned cameras.
Safeguards and Audits
TPD’s General Order 56 limits ALPR use to active criminal intelligence or investigative purposes. Searches require an authorized user to provide a purpose and case number, and access is controlled through individual login credentials.
The department also says an ALPR alert by itself generally does not give an officer authority to take enforcement action. Officers must visually verify the license plate and confirm the information through appropriate law enforcement databases.
Other safeguards include mandatory training, restrictions against using the system for personal interest or curiosity, and auditing of searches. Misuse can result in discipline, termination, criminal arrest or civil liability. TPD policy establishes a minimum 30-day data-retention period, subject to applicable public-records requirements.
Those auditing provisions recently received a real-world test. TPD identified 293 searches that were flagged by the system for further review. According to the city, each was investigated and determined to have been conducted for a legitimate law enforcement purpose.
TPD also launched a public Flock Transparency Portal on Aug. 25 providing information about ALPR reads, searches, hits, policies and other information.
The discussion comes as other governments reconsider the technology. Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil recently suspended LCSO’s use of ALPR technology pending additional standards and oversight, while the Florida Department of Transportation has revoked permits allowing ALPR devices within state highway rights-of-way. The FDOT action does not prohibit ALPR technology generally, but requires affected cameras to be removed from state rights-of-way.
The City Commission agenda does not recommend ending TPD’s ALPR program. Instead, commissioners are being asked to provide direction on the technology’s future use as officials weigh its documented investigative benefits against concerns involving privacy, data access, retention and oversight.
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