An ALPR is a searchable vehicle file, not a ticket camera.

• ALPR. Reads plates on cars that drive by, whether or not anyone broke a traffic rule. One drive-by is one file that can be searched later. Florida law says an ALPR may not issue a traffic notice of violation or a uniform traffic citation (§ 316.0777).
• School-zone speed camera. A photo-enforcement pole that measures speed and can mail a ticket. Florida § 316.1896 says that system may not be used for remote surveillance. A plate photo on a speeding ticket is evidence of that ticket. It is not, by itself, a Flock-style searchable network. See school zones and RedSpeed.
• Red-light camera. Photo enforcement at an intersection. Same idea: a ticket file, not a nationwide plate grid, unless a vendor also turns on an ALPR or live-stream layer.
• Ordinary CCTV. A video feed someone watches or records. It does not automatically turn every plate into a searchable record.

Think of one drive-by as one file. Flock Safety's current company default (CEO Garrett Langley, 13 Aug 2026) is to delete that unsaved file after 7 days. A later drive-by is a different file with its own clock.

Agencies can set a longer window. Existing Flock customers keep the window they already approved unless they switch. A saved hit (Evidence Mode, still rolling out) and search or audit logs sit on a different schedule. Local configured days for Plant City, TPD, and HCSO are not published on this site.

§ 316.0778 tells the Department of State, consulting FDLE, to set a maximum retention schedule. The statute itself does not say 90 days or three years. Agencies quote General Records Schedule GS2 Item 217 as a maximum of three anniversary years (Tallahassee PD GO-56; FDLE CJJIS guidelines, 13 Nov 2024). This site did not independently open the GS2 PDF. Florida is not a 90-day ALPR state. Sites that say § 316.0777 caps plates at 90 days have the statutes mixed up. The 90-day destroy rule in § 316.1896(15) is for school-zone speed-detection records after final disposition of that event, not the ALPR cap.

Axon's product default for Fleet 3 read/hit retention is 30 days. Vigilant (Motorola) has no company-wide default days published here. Ask the agency what it actually set.

s. 316.0778 (2025) · s. 316.0777 (2025) · s. 316.1896 (2025) · Tallahassee PD GO-56 · FDLE CJJIS ALPR guidelines (13 Nov 2024) · Flock, 13 Aug 2026.

Network sharing is an agency setting. Flock's 30 Jun 2026 LPR policy says sharing is disabled by default and that the customer owns the data. Those are company claims. Who Plant City, TPD, HCSO, or St. Pete actually share with is a Chapter 119 question.

Hotlists are watch lists the system checks against as cars go by: stolen cars, missing-person plates, NCIC, or "other database or hot list" in Flock's policy language. Which lists a local agency enables is a records question.

OS Investigate (was Nightshift) is a Flock-only AI search tool. WIRED, 19 Aug 2026 reconstructed code that searches people and vehicles by movement, with no plate, name, or crime required. Flock did not dispute those capabilities. Flock says the tool is separate from the LPR product, in development, and not what Axon, Vigilant, or RedSpeed sell. This site has no primary that OS Investigate is live in Tampa Bay.

Ask under Chapter 119 and Article I, section 24 of the Florida Constitution. Ask for contracts, invoices, sharing settings, audit policies, and staff reports. Do not expect plate images or owner PII in a 119 release.

s. 316.0777, F.S. makes confidential and exempt: images and data that contain or provide personal identifying information from an ALPR, and PII of a person in data generated from those images. Disclosure to a criminal justice agency in official duties is separately authorized, as is disclosure to the registered owner (unless the data is active criminal intelligence or investigative information). Contracts and dollar figures are a different request.

This site is not legal advice. Speak civilly. Stay on the record. This page does not advise anyone to touch, block, disable, or approach a camera.

Florida Senate, s. 316.0777 (2025) · Chapter 119.

These five land in Plant City, Tampa, St. Pete, and Pasco. If staff only say the product is safe, they have not answered. Longer versions: Q&A and If it is so safe, why is it quiet?

1. How many days are unsaved scans kept, in the contract, not in a vendor slide?
2. Which agencies, including federal, can search this data today?
3. Which hotlists are on?
4. Who reviews search logs, and will a summary be posted?
5. Will you notice a town hall with the vendor in the chair?

• Flock Safety

  Searchable LPR network. TPD, Plant City, HCSO (Atlas), SPPD, Pinellas SO among others, Pasco SO (switching some poles to Axon).

• Axon

  Fleet 3 in-car ALPR, Outpost/Lightpost fixed units. Pasco SO switch in progress. Pinellas SO and SPPD patrol cars, as reported.

• Vigilant (Motorola)

  Pinellas SO (Gualtieri). Temple Terrace: two cameras, not renewing October 2026.

• RedSpeed

  School-zone and photo enforcement, not the Plant City Flock contract. See also school zones.

Nationwide figures of about 120,000 cameras, 49 states, about 7,000 agencies come from the New York Times, 10 Aug 2026 and contemporaneous press. Those are vendor and press figures, not a Hillsborough inventory. This site does not invent a local camera count.