OVIEDO, Fla. — Oviedo’s police chief faced tough questions from residents and city leaders about the use of automatic license plate readers during a city council meeting Monday.
Back in February, the city of Oviedo installed eight Flock automatic license plate readers, but during a council meeting earlier this month residents raised privacy concerns, prompting Monday’s discussion.
The primary concern was that the cameras could be violating citizen rights under the Fourth amendment.
The council ultimately decided they would ask a Flock Group Inc. representative to answer questions from council members directly before hearing an ordinance that would potentially end the use of the cameras.During Monday’s meeting, Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman answered a barrage of questions about the rollout of the five-year contract signed with Flock Group Inc. to install the eight license plate readers at the entrances and exits to the city.
Council members adopted the resolution approving the cameras on September 15, 2025. They agreed to pay Flock Group Inc. $128,000 to lease the cameras for five years.
According to Oviedo’s Deputy Police Chief Mike Beavers, since then all sworn officers who have completed the required training now have access to the Flock Group’s data.
However, before accessing the data each officer needs to enter a valid case number and a valid reason for searching the data base.
According to the deputy chief, the department is conducting weekly audits but has not found any misuse since the cameras were rolled out in February.
Still, city residents raised concerns about privacy, the potential for misuse, and how data created by the license plate readers is stored.
“Oviedo is safe as hell. Do we need this to catch a few kids on e-bikes. Sometimes good enough is good enough,” said one resident.
Police Chief Dale Coleman called the license plate readers a “force multiplier.” He told Channel 9 they have regularly aided the department in making arrests.
According to the Oviedo Police Department, the cameras were recently used to solve a case involving domestic violence with a pregnant victim, a multi-vehicle burglary case, and a case involving a missing juvenile who was later found in Titusville.
However, council members pointed out concerns about data sharing.
Several council members reiterated they believed Oviedo had adequate safeguards, but worried about shared access with other law enforcement agencies.
Specifically, the department stated the information captured by the city’s license plate readers are accessible to more than 900 other law enforcement agencies within a 500-mile radius of the city of Oviedo.
Council members worried those other agencies may not have adequate safeguards to prevent misuse.
“We are hearing people don’t trust Flock, we are also seeing that Flock is changing things they should’ve gotten right the first time, so they don’t trust themselves either,” said Oviedo’s Deputy Mayor, Natalie Teuchert.
Channel 9 asked Chief Coleman whether he believes more safeguards could be built into the Flock Group System’s technology to prevent misuse.
“That’s what I’m going to talk to Flock about to see what kind of parameters and how good of parameters can we add to increase what we currently do,” said Coleman, “The system helps and is a huge multiplier for all of law enforcement and at the county and city level.”
The city ultimately scheduled a workshop on August 31st so a representative for Flock Group Inc. can address additional questions from council members.
The Council will tentatively discuss “de-flocking” the city and unwinding the Flock camera program on September 10th.
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