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Coral Springs police defend license‑plate reader use, call for clearer public guidance
Summary
Chief Mok and a Flock Safety representative told commissioners the license‑plate reader system is an investigatory tool used for real‑time alerts (AMBER/silver/stolen vehicles) and retrospective searches tied to crimes; the department pledged audit trails and said the system does not capture drivers' faces or Bluetooth data; commissioners requested written answers and a workshop.
Coral Springs' police leadership and a representative from Flock Safety met with the commission to address public concerns about license‑plate reader (LPR) cameras and data access.
Chief Mok described the system as "an investigative tool to help identify vehicles that are tied to crimes," emphasizing that the system captures still images of license plates and rear vehicle views only. He said LPR searches are restricted to law-enforcement uses, that each login and search is time‑stamped and auditable, and that users must include a reason code tied to an investigation (e.g., AMBER alerts, stolen vehicles) when querying the database. "There is no facial recognition involved with this technology," the chief said. The representative from Flock Safety confirmed the vendor's auditing capabilities and said proactive anomaly‑detection tools flag suspicious search spikes.
Commissioners expressed support for public-safety benefits but asked for written technical detail on automated auditing, heat-map or pattern-of-life capabilities (the company representative denied the ability to generate a 'pattern of life' location history for an identifiable resident), national access rules, and other data-governance questions. Several commissioners asked staff to prepare a workshop to review best practices, data‑retention limits, and public safeguards. The city agreed to circulate written answers to commission questions and to publish the information for the public.
