Deflock Broward2d ago

1/9
Pembroke Pines, FL quietly built a surveillance machine over 10 years. $1.3 million. 160+ cameras. Facial recognition. FBI database access. Audio capture. A nationwide plate database with 4 billion+ reads. The City Commission voted on it 13 times. Never once debated it. Every claim here is from public records. 🧵

#SurveillanceState #ALPR #PembrokePines #Broward #FlockSafety #FacialRecognition #PublicRecords #Florida

Show threadDeflock Broward2d ago
2/9
In 2016, police ran a "field test" of Vigilant's facial recognition — accessing 3 million Florida booking photos — before the Commission ever voted on it. When the vote came, it was buried in a consent item about license plate readers. Passed without a word. By January 2017, "facial recognition program" appeared in the motion text. Nobody asked who could be searched or how long data was kept. 5-0. Consent. Next item.
Show threadDeflock Broward2d ago
3/9
Here's where it gets wild. December 16, 2020: the Commission pulls a facial recognition item from consent — access to the Florida DMV's full driver license photo database — and demands a public workshop, written standard operating procedures, and two more votes before approving it. Commissioners spoke on the record. There was a contested 3-2 deferral vote. Real governance, documented in the minutes.
Show threadDeflock Broward2d ago
4/9
At that same December 16 meeting, a Vigilant renewal — accessing 3 MILLION criminal booking photos for facial recognition — passed on consent as Item 19(C) of a routine contract database report. It was labeled "Camera License – Renewal." No commissioner noticed they were rubber-stamping a larger biometric database than the one they'd just demanded months of oversight for. Same meeting. Same minutes.
Show threadDeflock Broward
5/9
And the DMV facial recognition access they deliberated so carefully? Turns out police were already using it before the Commission ever voted. The April 2021 legislation states it explicitly: "This agency is a current user of Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Face Analysis and Examination System." The entire multi-month deliberation process — workshop, SOPs, two deferrals — was to authorize a capability that was already deployed.
Mar 18 at 6:51pmWeb
Show threadDeflock Broward2d ago
6/9
Now meet Flock Safety. Their cameras don't just read plates — they build a "Vehicle Fingerprint" capturing make, model, color, bumper stickers, roof racks, bike racks. The 2024 contract quietly added audio capture to the definition of "Footage." The Commission wasn't told. Flock also connects to the FBI's NCIC database in real time, plus a nationwide camera network, plus unlimited custom suspect lists — no case file required. The legislation calls them "license plate recognition readers."
Show threadDeflock Broward2d ago
7/9
The $342,400 Flock expansion — FBI integration, audio capture, nationwide plate network — passed on consent at the May 2024 meeting alongside a metal canopy replacement. A 2022 vote on a solid waste assessment got more deliberation than the entire decade-long surveillance buildout. The 2022 Flock budget projection showed $0 in recurring costs for Years 2–5. The actual annual cost: $90,000/year. No commissioner caught a $360,000 omission.
Show threadDeflock Broward2d ago
8/9
No competitive bid has produced a purchase since 2016. That year the Commission told staff to issue a new RFP. It never happened. Every purchase since used sole-source or cooperative exceptions. The justification? A "field test" rationale from 2015 — still cited verbatim in 2025 documents. Flock holds a perpetual, irrevocable license to all city camera footage — GPS data, vehicle imagery — surviving contract termination.
Show threadDeflock Broward2d ago
9/9
Ten years. Two vendors. 160+ cameras. Facial recognition (status now uncertain). Audio capture. FBI integration. A nationwide plate database. No enforceable retention policy. No published access controls. No audit mechanism. No oversight framework. The Commission has never once considered the combined surveillance architecture as a whole. All sourced from public records. Full archive and pending records requests at: https://deflockbroward.org/pembroke-pines
Pembroke Pines | Deflock Broward

Ten years. $1.3 million. Thirteen votes, zero deliberations. What the public record shows about Pembroke Pines' ALPR surveillance program — and the capabilities its Commission was never told it was authorizing.

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