State Order Pulls License Plate Cameras Off St. Johns Roads, But Local Cameras Stay for Now

License plate reader cameras are coming down from state roads across St. Johns County within the next few weeks, after the Florida Department of Transportation revoked the permits that allowed them there. The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office has confirmed it will comply. What happens to the roughly 180 other cameras the county runs on local and county roads, including one at County Road 210 and Crosswater Parkway, is still an open question.

FDOT's memo gives agencies statewide 30 days to remove license plate reader, or LPR, technology from the rights-of-way of roads on the State Highway System. The order does not touch county or city-owned roads, which is why a camera sitting on a non-state road like Crosswater Parkway could keep operating even as similar units come down a few miles away on a state highway.

Sheriff Robert Hardwick said his office has used the technology since 2017 and stands behind it. "The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office remains confident in the effectiveness and overwhelming success of license plate reader technology," Hardwick said in a statement, adding that his agency will keep working toward "the best balance between public safety and personal privacy."

A sheriff's office spokesperson has declined to say whether cameras on county roads will also be pulled down, telling local media outlets the agency would not go beyond its written statement.

What the county has spent

Records show St. Johns County budgeted more than $500,000 for the purchase, maintenance and repair of LPR and Flock cameras in the 2026 fiscal year. In an email to county commissioners, Hardwick put the number at $908,000 budgeted with $481,000 actually spent, saying grants covered the difference. At a budget hearing this week, he said another $500,000 in the proposed budget is earmarked for LPR software updates, even as the program's future on state roads ends.

Commissioners split, residents push back

The order has split local elected officials. County Commissioner Ann Taylor said residents' concerns have been heard. Commission Chair Clay Murphy, a 39-year veteran of law enforcement, took the opposite view, calling the state's move "a blow to public safety."

"I trust my sheriff and I trust my sheriff's office, and I trust the men and women that do that to make the right decisions," Murphy said, arguing the cameras don't track people the way critics fear and that checks and balances already govern their use.

Public comment at this week's county budget hearing ran heavily toward the cameras, not the tax rate on the agenda. Residents pressed commissioners on cost and civil liberties, asking where taxpayer money earmarked for units now coming off state roads will end up, and questioning whether the county commission ever formally authorized the sheriff's office to place Flock cameras on county right-of-way in the first place. A group calling itself Deflock St. Johns County has raised similar objections at commission meetings in recent months.

Hardwick used the same hearing to ask commissioners for a $3.9 million budget increase that would raise pay for more than 420 deputies below the rank of sergeant by roughly $9,000 each, along with five additional deputy positions. He told commissioners 95% of his requested increase goes toward personnel, not technology, after one resident said she didn't want tax dollars spent replacing officers with cameras.

The sheriff's office says it supports new state legislation that would set clear standards for LPR use and plans to keep working with the Florida Sheriffs Association and local lawmakers on that policy. No timeline has been given for when, or whether, the county will decide the fate of cameras on roads the state order doesn't cover.

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