August 7, 2026 • 8 mins
Ryan, Dana, Chris Trenkmann, and Nathalie Rodriguez discuss a Florida police department’s statement on Flock cameras and reports that law enforcement agencies are quietly using Meta smart glasses as new surveillance tools.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Farah and Farah
Accident Attorneys, Tampa.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good Morning, Chris, Good Morning. Flock cameras continue to be
a concern among many people, so much so that the
police chief in Saint Petersburg wants to clear the air.
Anthony Holloway issued a statement about the cameras after comments
circulated online about police usage. Chief Holloway says he wants
(00:27):
to provide clear and factual information about the flock cameras.
He says they are essentially automated license plate readers, and
law enforcement uses them as an investigative tool to solve crimes,
locate missing people, and recover stolen vehicles. He says they
capture pictures of vehicles, not people. They capture information like
(00:48):
license plate numbers, the issuing state, the make and model
of vehicles, body size, color, those sorts of things, and
that flock only retains video for thirty days and access
is restricted to authorized personnel.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Now, I did mention recently when we were talking about
this issue, that there was an incident in Georgia where
you had a kidnapping and the flock cameras helped locate
the child within like fifteen minutes. So that was a
case of those cameras helping in an investigation. Then you
(01:24):
have these stories. You have a Missouri police officer accused
of using the flock camera system to track his wife
during their divorce. So the officer admitted using the license
plate reader to determine his then wife's location and get this,
The Saint Louis County Police Department investigation found no criminal activity.
(01:47):
The case was closed because in Missouri they don't have
a law making it illegal for officers to use flock
cameras for personal tracking. Now North Carolina bit of a
different story. You had a police officer there tested for
doing thirty one searches to track her boyfriend's ex wife.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, so a couple of.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Alarming incidents there where these flock cameras were used for
personal tracking.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And that doesn't even include hackers. What about people from
the outside to get access to these cameras right.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well, in the North Carolina case, somebody from that police
department said they're looking at at least ten other potential
cases of misuse, and three of them look like they're
going to be problematic.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
So that's just in one police department.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's I think a legitimate concern. Now, Florida law has
some verbiage that you can make the case makes it
illegal for law enforcement to use flock cameras for personal tracking,
but it's not super clear cut. It's not like it's
in statute saying you know, it is illegal for law
(02:57):
enforcement to use this for personal tracking. That's not in
Florida law. And then you have people now they're protesting.
We've got this guy in Saint Pete who every weekend
is out there in front of the flock camera holding
up a sign. There was somebody, I forget what county
it was in where they vandalized a flock Valencia County.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
They're being cut down.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah, yeah. And there was one incident where somebody spray
painted the camera to kind of to cover it, but
then the other flock cameras in the area caught that
person vandalizing the flock camera.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
We're going to do that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And then there was a Minnesota town where all eight
flock cameras that they had they were stolen, the polls
were cut down.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So the problem for police here, and I understand why
the chief in Saint Petersburg wants to put out this
message that they're useful in solving crimes, that's true. But
the problem for police is when they say something like
that and then some agency in Missouri has these cops
that are blatantly using it for person hundred and possibly
using it for criminal use, kills the credibility. So you
(04:05):
really need to put in some rules here so that
there are clearly defined uses and if police do misuse them,
there are consequences.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, and tracking your boyfriend's ex wife to make sure
nothing the farious is going on, Like, I can understand
the impulse to do that, but not allowed. If you
want to weigh in on this, you could pull up
your iHeartRadio app search for WIOD or WFLA if you
haven't already made them presets, and you'll see that microphone icon.
(04:35):
You hit that and you can record thirty seconds of
your take on these flock license play cameras, if your
four flock or against them. We haven't done a like
a pole like this of the flock camera issues, so
I'm curious to get some feedback on where everyone's at
your team flock. Yeah, it's our team no flock, right?
(05:00):
Are you flocking for the cameras or against them? So again,
weigh in on your iHeartRadio app, WFLA or WIOD hit
that microphone icon and you can record your voice. Comment
what else going on this morning, Natalie.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
Well, we've also got on our hands privacy advocates who
are kind of raising the alarm here in the Sunshine State,
in particular, following public records that reveal that at least
two local sheriff's offices have kind of under the radar,
bought some meta smart glasses for on the job use.
And the report comes from the Miami New Times, and
(05:33):
it shows that the Broward County Sheriff's Office BSO that
they bought several pairs of these so called smart glasses
from Amazon for its undercover Internet crimes unit. And officials
with BSO have not really said too much. They're not
sharing too much as far as specific deployment policies. They're
citing surveillance exemptions. The Yokachobee County Sheriff's Office also got
(05:57):
their hands on about a half dozen pair city that
it was for their IT personnel for remote troubleshooting. Now,
civil liberties groups warn that these consumer wearables, which look
like regular ordinary eyewear, some of them like regular reading
glasses some of them look like sunglasses. Well, they're arguing
that it makes it far too easy for cops in
(06:19):
particular to record us without visible accountability. Meta hasn't even
publicly come out with what their policies are regarding police
use of their devices. And you know, this report signles
out Meta ray band smart glasses in particular, But there
are so many off name brands out there that have
(06:40):
the same types of glasses, these smart glasses or these
wearables that are available to Joe Schmoe right now. They
can get them on Timu, they can get them on
you know, TikTok and Amazon. So it's hard to say
who's wearing them.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
But as far.
Speaker 6 (06:57):
As what the policies are behind this, that's you know,
the question here, Why why don't we have more clarity
as far as that?
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Are you looking at me to see if my classes.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
On right now?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
I know, so I have to look at you up.
I don't need to record you all in the studio
to go back to it later. You do have a
pair though you were supposed to give me a pair.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I think we talked about this before.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Yes, I do have a pair, and as I.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Want to see what they look like.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, I got to.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Look for and because this actually came up in our
feedback meeting a couple of weeks ago, where somebody was asking, Hey,
can we get a pair of metaglasses to you know,
to have an events or something like that, not to
wear them around, not to wear them around the office show,
to be able to actually record like fun stuff that
they're doing and disclose that they're recording.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
And I said, no, I think I have a pair
of those.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
I totally forgot I promised them to you, So now
I promised them to two people. I gotta find them, though,
I gotta, I gotta go look for That's so sure.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I love this.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
We're law enforcements is walking around with metaglasses?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Well, but they have their bud. This is what I
was thinking.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Don't they have body cams anyway that they don't necessarily
have to disclose as you can't keep you assume, but
if you're interacting with police that you could be recorded.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
Right, But then then then you kind of cross the
line and ask yourself, if you're at work, do they
have to disclose to your coworkers or your bosses have
to disclose that they're wearing them and that they're recording
you at all times.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
It's like, where's the boundary? Yeah right, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Well, and also I know that didn't we talk about
how there are some schools that are rules in place
that you can't have the metaglasses in school.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, growing problem on a number of locker rooms. And
see it right exactly. No, that's a that's a key point. Natalie.
All right, Natalie Rodriguez with today's top stories. Natalie, thanks
so much.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I mean, at a smart glasses flock cameras, we'll just robbed.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Stop, make the Ryan Gorman Show podcast. I'll pre set
on iHeartRadio, presented by Verah and Farah Accident Attorneys, Tampa,
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Farah and Farah
Accident Attorneys, Tampa.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good Morning, Chris, Good Morning. Flock cameras continue to be
a concern among many people, so much so that the
police chief in Saint Petersburg wants to clear the air.
Anthony Holloway issued a statement about the cameras after comments
circulated online about police usage. Chief Holloway says he wants
(00:27):
to provide clear and factual information about the flock cameras.
He says they are essentially automated license plate readers, and
law enforcement uses them as an investigative tool to solve crimes,
locate missing people, and recover stolen vehicles. He says they
capture pictures of vehicles, not people. They capture information like
(00:48):
license plate numbers, the issuing state, the make and model
of vehicles, body size, color, those sorts of things, and
that flock only retains video for thirty days and access
is restricted to authorized personnel.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Now, I did mention recently when we were talking about
this issue, that there was an incident in Georgia where
you had a kidnapping and the flock cameras helped locate
the child within like fifteen minutes. So that was a
case of those cameras helping in an investigation. Then you
(01:24):
have these stories. You have a Missouri police officer accused
of using the flock camera system to track his wife
during their divorce. So the officer admitted using the license
plate reader to determine his then wife's location and get this,
The Saint Louis County Police Department investigation found no criminal activity.
(01:47):
The case was closed because in Missouri they don't have
a law making it illegal for officers to use flock
cameras for personal tracking. Now North Carolina bit of a
different story. You had a police officer there tested for
doing thirty one searches to track her boyfriend's ex wife.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, so a couple of.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Alarming incidents there where these flock cameras were used for
personal tracking.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And that doesn't even include hackers. What about people from
the outside to get access to these cameras right.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well, in the North Carolina case, somebody from that police
department said they're looking at at least ten other potential
cases of misuse, and three of them look like they're
going to be problematic.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
So that's just in one police department.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's I think a legitimate concern. Now, Florida law has
some verbiage that you can make the case makes it
illegal for law enforcement to use flock cameras for personal tracking,
but it's not super clear cut. It's not like it's
in statute saying you know, it is illegal for law
(02:57):
enforcement to use this for personal tracking. That's not in
Florida law. And then you have people now they're protesting.
We've got this guy in Saint Pete who every weekend
is out there in front of the flock camera holding
up a sign. There was somebody, I forget what county
it was in where they vandalized a flock Valencia County.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
They're being cut down.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah, yeah. And there was one incident where somebody spray
painted the camera to kind of to cover it, but
then the other flock cameras in the area caught that
person vandalizing the flock camera.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
We're going to do that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And then there was a Minnesota town where all eight
flock cameras that they had they were stolen, the polls
were cut down.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So the problem for police here, and I understand why
the chief in Saint Petersburg wants to put out this
message that they're useful in solving crimes, that's true. But
the problem for police is when they say something like
that and then some agency in Missouri has these cops
that are blatantly using it for person hundred and possibly
using it for criminal use, kills the credibility. So you
(04:05):
really need to put in some rules here so that
there are clearly defined uses and if police do misuse them,
there are consequences.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, and tracking your boyfriend's ex wife to make sure
nothing the farious is going on, Like, I can understand
the impulse to do that, but not allowed. If you
want to weigh in on this, you could pull up
your iHeartRadio app search for WIOD or WFLA if you
haven't already made them presets, and you'll see that microphone icon.
(04:35):
You hit that and you can record thirty seconds of
your take on these flock license play cameras, if your
four flock or against them. We haven't done a like
a pole like this of the flock camera issues, so
I'm curious to get some feedback on where everyone's at
your team flock. Yeah, it's our team no flock, right?
(05:00):
Are you flocking for the cameras or against them? So again,
weigh in on your iHeartRadio app, WFLA or WIOD hit
that microphone icon and you can record your voice. Comment
what else going on this morning, Natalie.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
Well, we've also got on our hands privacy advocates who
are kind of raising the alarm here in the Sunshine State,
in particular, following public records that reveal that at least
two local sheriff's offices have kind of under the radar,
bought some meta smart glasses for on the job use.
And the report comes from the Miami New Times, and
(05:33):
it shows that the Broward County Sheriff's Office BSO that
they bought several pairs of these so called smart glasses
from Amazon for its undercover Internet crimes unit. And officials
with BSO have not really said too much. They're not
sharing too much as far as specific deployment policies. They're
citing surveillance exemptions. The Yokachobee County Sheriff's Office also got
(05:57):
their hands on about a half dozen pair city that
it was for their IT personnel for remote troubleshooting. Now,
civil liberties groups warn that these consumer wearables, which look
like regular ordinary eyewear, some of them like regular reading
glasses some of them look like sunglasses. Well, they're arguing
that it makes it far too easy for cops in
(06:19):
particular to record us without visible accountability. Meta hasn't even
publicly come out with what their policies are regarding police
use of their devices. And you know, this report signles
out Meta ray band smart glasses in particular, But there
are so many off name brands out there that have
(06:40):
the same types of glasses, these smart glasses or these
wearables that are available to Joe Schmoe right now. They
can get them on Timu, they can get them on
you know, TikTok and Amazon. So it's hard to say
who's wearing them.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
But as far.
Speaker 6 (06:57):
As what the policies are behind this, that's you know,
the question here, Why why don't we have more clarity
as far as that?
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Are you looking at me to see if my classes.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
On right now?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
I know, so I have to look at you up.
I don't need to record you all in the studio
to go back to it later. You do have a
pair though you were supposed to give me a pair.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I think we talked about this before.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Yes, I do have a pair, and as I.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Want to see what they look like.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, I got to.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Look for and because this actually came up in our
feedback meeting a couple of weeks ago, where somebody was asking, Hey,
can we get a pair of metaglasses to you know,
to have an events or something like that, not to
wear them around, not to wear them around the office show,
to be able to actually record like fun stuff that
they're doing and disclose that they're recording.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
And I said, no, I think I have a pair
of those.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
I totally forgot I promised them to you, So now
I promised them to two people. I gotta find them, though,
I gotta, I gotta go look for That's so sure.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I love this.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
We're law enforcements is walking around with metaglasses?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Well, but they have their bud. This is what I
was thinking.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Don't they have body cams anyway that they don't necessarily
have to disclose as you can't keep you assume, but
if you're interacting with police that you could be recorded.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
Right, But then then then you kind of cross the
line and ask yourself, if you're at work, do they
have to disclose to your coworkers or your bosses have
to disclose that they're wearing them and that they're recording
you at all times.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
It's like, where's the boundary? Yeah right, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Well, and also I know that didn't we talk about
how there are some schools that are rules in place
that you can't have the metaglasses in school.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, growing problem on a number of locker rooms. And
see it right exactly. No, that's a that's a key point. Natalie.
All right, Natalie Rodriguez with today's top stories. Natalie, thanks
so much.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I mean, at a smart glasses flock cameras, we'll just robbed.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Stop, make the Ryan Gorman Show podcast. I'll pre set
on iHeartRadio, presented by Verah and Farah Accident Attorneys, Tampa,
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