Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons is suspending the county’s license plate reader system, following Florida Governor’s order Monday directing law enforcement agencies to pull flock cameras off state highways. Simmons told me on the We Don’t Color on the Dog podcast that the decision came together fast, but the underlying debate over law enforcement versus privacy has been building for weeks.
The Sheriff’s Office runs about 24 camera locations countywide, with roughly a third of those on state roadways. Under the governor’s order, agencies had 30 days to remove cameras from state highways—a requirement Simmons said would have gutted the system’s effectiveness anyway, prompting him to suspend the whole program instead.
“It matters what the public thinks. It matters about what they think about how we enforce the laws.” — Sheriff Chip Simmons
No advance warning: Simmons said he had no heads-up the order was coming. His office had been coordinating with the Florida Sheriffs Association and had planned to raise the issue with the governor’s team later this week, plus at an upcoming legislative meeting in Lake Mary. “This move surprised all of us,” he said.
What’s next: Simmons is hoping for clarity — legislative, from a future governor, or from the courts — that lets the county bring the system back in some form. Other sheriffs around the state have already suspended their own LPR systems.
