News
County vote pulls license plate readers off county roads
What did the county decide about license plate readers?
On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, St. Johns County commissioners voted 3-2 to revoke permits for Flock Safety license plate readers on county roads. The sheriff’s office said 89 cameras on county rights-of-way come down, but it has not set the day they will be turned off. Cameras on private property and in HOA communities are not part of the vote.
Last updated October 21, 2026.
Published October 20, 2026. Last reviewed October 21, 2026.
This is a county-road decision, not a ban on every camera in St. Johns. News4JAX reported that the Board of County Commissioners voted 3-2 to revoke the use permits for automatic license plate readers on county rights-of-way. The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office statement quoted in that story says the vote requires removal of 89 readers on county roads, and that an effective date for disabling them had not been determined. Readers on private property, and readers operated by HOAs, stay up.
The same statement says the sheriff’s office already removed 84 readers in September to comply with a Florida Department of Transportation order covering state roads. County roads were the cameras still in dispute. Sheriff Robert A. Hardwick said he disagrees with the commission and will keep working to bring the technology back. The office has described the readers as one investigative lead among others, and it told commissioners earlier that the system does not use facial recognition or collect cellphone data.
At a September budget hearing, sheriff’s officials said they had cut data retention to 30 days, limited who can use the system, and stopped sharing the data with outside agencies. Residents at the October meeting talked about privacy, how long a read is kept, false reads, and the chance of being stopped because a camera was wrong. Commissioner Sarah Arnold wanted a temporary pause so legal staff and the legislative delegation could tighten the rules. Commissioner Whitehurst was open to taking the cameras down while the state looked further. Commissioner Krista Joseph wanted to keep them with stronger safeguards. Chairman Clay Murphy did not want them suspended while those safeguards were still being written. News4JAX reported that no removal timeline was set.
If you are deciding where to live, the practical version is narrower than the headline. A camera at a neighborhood gate or on private property is a different permission than a camera the county allowed in the public right-of-way. Ask an HOA what it operates before you treat this vote as “no plate readers in that village.” And do not assume the 89 county cameras are dark on a particular morning until the sheriff’s office names a date. We will update this note when that date is public.