An investigation is underway in Florida after over a dozen license plate reader cameras were installed without a permit in one county.
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Of the 13 cameras found, three belong to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, but officials are still investigating who installed the other ten and who has access to the information they collect.
Ricky Mathura, who works right across from one of the cameras, said he first noticed it there in late August,
Mathura said what concerns him most isn’t necessarily the camera itself, but not knowing who is behind it or what happens to the information it collects.
“It’s kind of scary, because if it’s here for public safety, that’s fine. But if it’s not, and we don’t know who controls this and everything it records,” he said.
County officials said they discovered 13 license plate readers installed without the required permits.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office confirmed three belong to the agency and said it is investigating why they were installed without permits.
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But when it comes to the other ten, the county said it doesn’t know who put them there.
“We don’t know who they belong to. They were just put in our right-of-way,” St. Lucie County Communications Director Erick Gill said.
The discovery comes as Florida changes the way these devices can operate.
The Florida Department of Transportation had ordered license plate readers installed in state road rights-of-way to be removed by Sept. 30th.
These cameras, however, were found along roads under county jurisdiction. St. Lucie County posted notices giving their owners 30 days to remove them.
But the biggest question remains: who installed those ten cameras, and what happened to the information they may have collected?
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