DeFlock St Pete – DeFlock St Pete

Flock Abuse in Pinellas

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 20:03:41 -0400

Pinellas Sheriff’s Deputy Arrested for Flock Abuse

Just yesterday, two Pinellas County Sheriff’s Deputies were arrested for abuse of sensitive databases, one involving Flock. Unfortunately, similar cases of abuse have become all too common, and it felt like only a matter of time before we would see one in our community. To supporters of surveillance technologies like Flock, these cases may look like the system working as intended – the perpetrators were caught and will face consequences – but the way in which these cases came to light only raises questions about the abuses that have gone unnoticed.

In the case involving Flock, Deputy Karl Gwynne searched the Flock database over 300 times for the license plate of a woman he was “romantically interested in” (stalking). The Sheriff’s department only questioned Gwynne about this usage after they were contacted by journalists from TCPalm. This is despite Sheriff Bob Gualtieri’s assurances earlier this month that the department is prioritizing safeguards and accountability.

In the second case, Deputy Travis Stanton used the Florida Crime Information Center’s license plate database to stalk a 17-year-old girl. This time, the officer was only exposed after the victim came forward. While this case did not involve Flock, it demonstrates the same concerning lack of oversight, and shows that the problem is so much bigger than just Flock and ALPRs. Law enforcement has a rapidly growing set of tools that they can use for surveillance and access to sensitive information, and the oversight is haphazard at best.

Ultimately, when police and private companies are asked to police themselves, they don’t. This is why it is vital to, at the very least, provide full transparency into the tools available, and how they are being used. For example, the kind of logs that were used by journalists to identify Deputy Gwynne’s improper Flock usage have been ruled exempt from public records requests. As long as that is the case, the public has no way to monitor for further abuses.

In our rapidly changing world, the public deserves a seat at the table to decide the role that new technologies will play in our lives. This is the only way to guarantee that we can enjoy the benefits of these advancements, while being protected from the harms. To make this a reality, we need our local government to take a proactive role in navigating these changes. Simply accepting that the technology changes faster than public policy can keep up with is not good enough.

First Flock Walk

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 15:29:11 -0400

Join us tomorrow morning for a tour of several local Flock cameras! We’ll be using the deflock app to verify the location of cameras and update any missing or incorrect information. This will give us all an opportunity to learn how to use the app, which is how we can keep track of the cameras in our city. This will also be a time to socialize and brainstorm!

We will be meeting at the Pier and walking south towards USF St Pete. We will provide some basic refreshments, but be prepared for walking in warm weather.

City Council Votes to Start the Discussion

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:43:13 -0400

The anti-surveillance movement has more momentum than ever, and our elected officials are starting to take notice!

This week, city council voted to bring a discussion about our Flock contract to the Public Services and Infrastructure Committee! This business item was brought forward by Council Member Richie Floyd and was approved unanimously. This is only the first step to getting Flock cameras off our streets, but it opens up the door for us to make our voices heard!

The Public Services and Infrastructure Committee is made up of council members Lisset Hanewicz, Mike Harting, Richie Floyd, and Copley Gerdes. We encourage you to reach out to these council members to let them know that you want to see Flock cameras removed from the city. Given that the vote was unanimous, we also encourage you to thank council for their support. For information on how to contact city council members, see our get involved page.

First Meeting Update

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 15:35:54 -0400

Presentation Slides

download the slides!

TLDR

We had well over 100 people show up to our first public meeting!
Please send us an email at DeFlockStPete@proton.me if you would like to volunteer with DeFlock St Pete or help plan future events!
We’ll be looking to establish a chat to keep people connected
We apologize to everyone who couldn’t get in due to capacity issues! We’ll learn from this event to avoid capacity issues in the future, and we’ve included a link to the slides for anyone who couldn’t attend

Huge Turnout!

Our first public meeting at the Obama Library had a better turnout than we could have possibly expected! So much so that unfortunately some people had to be turned away at the door. We’re incredibly sorry to any who couldn’t get in, especially those who had RSVP’d beforehand. This will definitely be a learning experience and we’ll make sure to look for a bigger venue, provide a remote option, and be stricter about RSVPs when space is tight at future events. In the meantime, you can download the slides using the link above, and if you have any questions that you weren’t able to ask, please send us an email at DeFlockStPete@proton.me!

Where we go from here

It was amazing to see so much of the community come together to stand up against mass surveillance! Not only was there great energy, but there were also so many thoughtful questions and ideas. Clearly, people have been thinking about this issue and looking for an outlet to express their feelings. We hope that we can provide that outlet and help to build upon this momentum. Key to doing that is getting the community connected and talking.

With this in mind, we are looking for everyone who is interested in volunteering and/or helping to organize future events to reach out by email (see email above). At this point we have a small Signal chat with folks who have been involved in DeFlock St Pete and it would be great to either expand this chat or move to another platform with everyone interested in getting involved. As we expand to a larger chat, we should note that this increases the chances that communications will be leaked, so we ask anyone interested in joining to treat this space as if it is public.

For those who are interested in staying up-to-date with the campaign, but not necessarily becoming volunteers, we will continue to use the email list and advertise on other platforms. Keep an eye out in the near future, as we will be using the coming days to plan what’s next for DeFlock St Pete!

Campaign Kickoff Meeting

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 21:43:19 -0400

Details

DeFlock St Pete will be holding an educational meeting on Saturday, August 15th @ 11:30am at the Barack Obama Library! This meeting will help residents to understand what Flock is and why it matters to them. We will also discuss how people can get involved in our campaign and what next steps will look like.