Pinellas County, FL Flock Contract

Who approved this?

No source names who approved this contract. That gap is common where a purchase cleared without a council vote.

FDOT Engineering and Operations Memorandum 26-01, signed by chief operating officer and assistant secretary Will Watts on August 31, 2026, revoked general use permits for automated license plate readers on the State Highway System and gave agencies 30 days to remove them, ending September 30, 2026. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office will comply with the removal order for cameras on state highways while keeping county owned readers on county rights of way running. FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported him defending the technology, saying the readers are motion activated and do not record or photograph continuously, and crediting them in a county crime decline of more than 64 percent over the past decade. Axios Tampa Bay reported on September 1, 2026 that the office was complying with the state order without planning broader changes. The memo rationale names the increase in deployments along state roadways plus reports of misuse, data privacy concerns and surveillance schemes. The sources do not give a Pinellas contract amount, a term length or a total camera count. Status is recorded as Suspended because only the state road cameras are affected and no source shows the contract was ended.