11 mysterious cameras were watching Florida drivers. Officials don’t know who owns them

Florida’s St. Lucie County recently discovered that its residents were being surveilled by mysterious cameras installed in secret and unconnected to any state or local agency. The county found the cameras after it voted to uninstall its own fleet of Flock automated license plate readers, which are used by more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies to track drivers’ movements on roads around the country. When the county took an inventory of the Flock units in operation, it found 14 unpermitted cameras pointed at its roads. Local law enforcement agencies claimed three of the unpermitted devices, leaving 11 mystery cameras unaccounted for, according to a report from the Washington Post. The county sent out letters mid-month to revoke permissions for the cameras it could identify and posted notices on the unpermitted cameras directing them to be removed within 30 days. “Once that 30-day timeframe is up – staff will begin safely removing the cameras or covering them to block their ability to record video,” St. Lucie County Communications Director Erick Gill told Fast Company. Gill clarified that 13 of the unpermitted cameras were on county streets, while one of the cameras was within the…