Brinkley Hill
•9/8/2026
NAPLES, Fla. (WINK)— The Florida Department of Transportation has given law enforcement 30 days to remove any automated license plate readers from state highway right-of-ways.
The Collier County Sheriff's Office is removing 72 cameras to comply with the directive. Sheriff Kevin Rambosk gave an update on how investigators are using the remaining 170 cameras for public safety as multiple community members expressed concerns about the technology.
Collier County residents voiced privacy concerns at a Board of Commissioners meeting. One resident urged officials not to turn public safety into surveillance.
"Please don't turn public safety into public surveillance. Don't make privacy the price of protection," one resident said.
Another resident questioned the balance between security and freedom.
"How much liberty are we willing to give up for more safety? Because government can provide security, but government must also protect our freedom," the resident said.
A third resident emphasized the importance of privacy rights.
"Privacy is not optional, and freedom is not something we surrender in exchange for the promise of convenience of security," the resident said.
Rambosk addressed the Collier County Commission to provide an update on the sheriff's office use of license plate reader technology. He covered topics including confidentiality, the protection of stored data, legal interpretations regarding the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution, and the agency's policy and procedures.
"I think there are some things that absolutely need to be done if we're to continue using this type of tool in law enforcement," Rambosk said.
The sheriff explained how the technology works and its limitations. The devices are individually motion activated and take three images of the rear of a vehicle when it passes through a reader location.
"You're not able to see inside a vehicle. You're not able to identify the driver of a vehicle," Rambosk said.
He emphasized that Collier County's license plate readers do not live record or stream video. The sheriff's office has no facial recognition capability or tracking, no automated tracking of vehicles and no audio monitoring from the devices.
The data is retained for only 14 days. According to the contract with vendors, the data is owned by the Collier County Sheriff's Office, and the vendor cannot use, sell or give away information in the system.
"I've directed the removal of 72 LPRs, mobile and fixed, in state right of ways," Rambosk said. "We're probably going to have to do it on our own because so many in Florida want them down, but we will be in compliance with the 30-day rule."
Rambosk explained that the license plate reader technology does not track the whole intimate pattern of life. The system cannot tell if someone is going to a specific store or the beach because it does not provide that level of tracking.
Each deputy who has access to the system must go through training and review policy and procedure. They need to be FCIC certified, which is Florida Crime Information certification, in order to use the computer confidential systems and databases in the state of Florida.
"Each deputy has an individual identifiable login. They have a password, so to enter a request into the system, we know who's doing it," Rambosk said.
The system requires a case number, an offense type, an explanation of why the search is being conducted and a CAD ID number for certain non-criminal violations.
"We've seen some deputies not here, but across the country, within the last two weeks, that have miserably misused this system for their own deviance," Rambosk said. "That's ridiculous. This is for a law enforcement and a public safety purpose."
The primary uses in Collier County are for missing persons, typically Alzheimer's patients, and suicidal or endangered persons. Year to date, the sheriff's office has handled more than 500 of those types of cases, along with some criminal investigation cases.
"Without that ability, I will tell you in Collier County, we pull out the full court press," Rambosk said. "If we're looking for an Alzheimer's person that drove away, or anyone else that is lost or missing, we put in place within two hours 40 deputies minimum to start that search."
The technology has also helped solve major crimes, including homicides. Rambosk said some very significant homicide cases involving long-term residents of Collier County may not have been solved without the technology.
The sheriff's office professional standards bureau has been given the responsibility to do inspection compliance investigations to determine if the system is being used properly. Those inspections are conducted every 30 days.
The sheriff's office is also in the process of drafting state legislation, which will be submitted to the legislature and the Florida Sheriff's Association. Rambosk said he wants the same type of protections for law enforcement use of license plate readers that are required in other regulated systems.
