1 of 2 Pinecrest Home Depot parking lot.Flock cameras and true crime: when my two worlds collided Flock camera on S.W. 82nd Ave and 136th Street.Flock cameras and true crime: when my two worlds collided Last week, two of my worlds collided. I was a podcast guest on The Joe Rooz Show talking about my latest thriller novel. We were discussing true crime, real-world events, and the kinds of things that influence thriller writers when Joe asked me what I thought about Flock license plate-reading cameras. I knew what they were, generally, but I didn’t know enough to have a particularly informed opinion. So, I pretty much punted. I said that because I’m not committing crimes, having my license plate photographed doesn’t particularly bother me. But I also acknowledged that it feels like there’s some Big Brother-type stuff going on here. I decided to educate myself, and things got more complicated. And my crisis communications synapses started firing. Flock cameras are automatic license plate readers, commonly called ALPRs. They photograph vehicles and use technology to identify license plates and other vehicle characteristics, creating searchable information that can be used by law enforcement and other authorized users. Flock says its readers don’t use facial recognition. The company says license plate data is generally deleted after 30 days by default, although retention policies can vary based on local laws and customer policies. The Crime Fighting Argument Joe had asked me specifically about an incident in Milwaukee involving an innocent motorist being detained at gunpoint after an automated license plate reader misidentified his vehicle. See: (https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/innocent-driver-held-gunpoint-over-123000184.html) That certainly gets your attention. At the same time, there’s another side of the story, and I discovered an example practically in my own backyard. I live in Pinecrest, a relatively small village of about eight square miles. Pinecrest has been using license plate reader technology for years, and the village council formally approved an agreement with Flock Group for license plate reader services in 2023. According to the Atlas of Surveillance, Pinecrest cops operated 28 Flock readers as of September 2025. I checked the deflock.org website, which crowdsources locations of the cameras around the country, and it appears there are more like 40 Flock readers in the village. By contrast, the villages of Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay, south of me, each have zero. (Those villages don’t have their own police departments.) I also noticed none around the University of Miami and a lesser concentration in Downtown Miami than in my village. However, some traffic corridors in Broward County are stacked with Flock readers at nearly every major intersection. So, your area’s Flock prevalence may be different. You can visit deflock.org and see for yourself. Results may vary. Flock markets its technology not only to law enforcement, but also to neighborhoods and businesses. I have photographed several cameras near my own home, including one less than half a mile away and another less than a mile away in the parking lot of my neighborhood Home Depot. I will come back to that. Pinecrest has also become something of a showcase for Flock. Flock recently featured Pinecrest in a case study involving a home invasion. According to Pinecrest Police Chief Jason Cohen, investigators searched the Flock system, identified the suspects’ vehicle and coordinated with the sheriff’s office helicopter. The vehicle was followed for approximately 22 miles, and three suspects were ultimately arrested. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clt8cxYVAhY That’s a pretty compelling argument for the technology. If someone breaks into my house at three in the morning, I suspect my philosophical concerns about license plate surveillance are going to take a back seat to wanting the police to find the bad guy. But What Are We Giving Up? The other side of the argument is just as understandable. These cameras don’t only photograph suspects. They photograph ordinary vehicles going about ordinary business. That means my car can be recorded while I am driving home, going to work, visiting a business or apparently heading to Home Depot to buy light bulbs, plants, or that mysterious little part that keeps the toilet from constantly running. Most of those trips are entirely uninteresting. But collectively, location information can become much more interesting. Civil liberties organizations argue that large networks of automated license plate readers can allow authorities to reconstruct people’s movements and associations in ways that were not realistically possible when cameras operated independently. Communities around the country have increasingly debated, restricted, paused, or ended Flock programs because of concerns involving privacy, data sharing, and potential misuse. Flock responds that customers control access and sharing, that every search is logged, and that its license plate readers focus on vehicles rather than identifying people through facial recognition. Because I’m a naturally curious sort, I reached out to Pinecrest’s Mayor-Elect Shannon Del Prado, who put me in touch with the aforementioned Chief Jason Cohen. He called me a few minutes later. Talk about great response time! Cohen told me he has been getting a lot of questions about Flock cameras. He noted that several companies manufacture license plate reader cameras, but Flock is the best known. And that the technology has been around for a while. He explained that the camera takes a snapshot of the rear of a vehicle traveling on a public roadway and transcribes the license plate number. It does not continuously stream video or photograph private property. The plate is then automatically checked against a state-run database that includes stolen vehicles, people with warrants, and other information connected to reported criminal activity. If a vehicle on that list passes one of Pinecrest’s cameras, police receive an immediate alert. Cohen noted that an officer stationed along a roadway could theoretically collect the same information manually, but the camera system allows the process to happen much more efficiently. Cohen made it clear that Pinecrest police are not using the system to look for vehicles with minor issues like expired license plates or broken taillights. He also stressed that officers are supposed to independently verify information generated by the system, a safeguard intended to prevent situations like the one involving the man in Milwaukee. “I stand behind it,” he said during our conversation. “I can tell you here in Pinecrest, we have had several very serious, high-profile cases solved. If we didn’t have an ALPR system, we would have never solved the case.” He pointed to the case referenced on Flock’s website and also described an armed robbery involving a family returning home from a restaurant in Coral Gables. “We had a family that came home from a restaurant in Coral Gables who were followed and robbed in their driveway for their expensive watches at gunpoint,” he said. “If not for ALPRs, we would have never been able to solve that case.” For Cohen, the number of cameras in Pinecrest has to be considered in the context of the community the department is charged with protecting. “Pinecrest is a desirable place to live, so I think using the technology to keep it that way just makes sense,” he said. “Some might look at it as that’s a lot of cameras for a little village. I look at it as it’s going to give us the best ability to solve your crime, or prevent your crime if you ever become a victim.” The Crisis Communications Problem This is where my day job enters the discussion. I have spent much of my career working in crisis communications. Looking at Flock cameras through that lens, one thing seems clear. This issue is not going away. Municipalities using this technology need to be able to explain why they are using it, what information is collected, how long it is retained, who can access it, who can share it, what safeguards exist, and what happens when the technology makes a mistake (this is a biggie). Police departments need protocols for verifying alerts before escalating encounters. Technology companies need to be prepared to explain false readings, misuse allegations, data security, and privacy protections. And elected officials need to understand that supporting the technology means accepting responsibility for explaining its benefits and its limitations. Pinecrest is particularly interesting because the village has placed itself near the center of this conversation. It has invested in the technology, used it successfully, and participated in a highly favorable Flock case study. That creates an opportunity but also an obligation to communicate. The worst time to explain controversial technology is after something has gone wrong. So Where Do I Come Down? I am still figuring that out. If Flock cameras help police catch the people who burglarized a neighbor’s home, that matters. If the same technology mistakenly identifies an innocent person’s vehicle and leads to a frightening police encounter, that matters too. Should I be worried if I go to Home Depot and buy gloves, a shovel, zip ties, and duct tape to, say, repair a fence or a leaky sprinkler? The real conversation should probably not be whether technology is good or bad. It should be about how much surveillance we are comfortable with in exchange for greater security, what safeguards should accompany that technology, and how much transparency we should expect from the institutions using it. That is a much harder question. It is also exactly the kind of question that interests both the thriller writer and the crisis communications consultant in me. John David is 29-year resident of Pinecrest, a crisis communications expert, and an award-winning mystery novelist. More on his business at DavidPR.com. His latest novel, The Pawn, was recently named a finalist for the 2026 Storytrade Book Award for traditional mysteries.     ABOUT US: For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. 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