A license plate reader program credited with helping deputies solve felonies and locate missing children is being shut down after Pasco County commissioners turned against it, Sheriff Chris Nocco announced this week.
Nocco notified the Board of County Commissioners that he is terminating the interlocal agreement governing the license plate detection systems, effective September 30. The move follows two commission meetings, on August 11 and August 25, where Nocco said it became clear a majority of the board no longer backs the program it approved unanimously back on December 10, 2024.
The decision comes just weeks after the Sheriff’s Office announced on August 10 that it was switching vendors for its automated plate readers, moving from Flock Safety to Axon.
In a pointed letter to commissioners, Nocco laid out just how tightly the program was run — and made clear he believes the board is abandoning a tool that worked exactly as intended. While Florida law allows agencies to retain license plate data for up to two years, Nocco noted his office voluntarily cut that window down to just 30 days, 23 months less than state law permits. Searches were restricted to felonies and select misdemeanors, and every query had to be tied to an active case number with a written justification from the deputy involved.
“These policies and procedures were incredibly robust and went far beyond what was required by state law and what surrounding jurisdictions have in place,” Nocco wrote, adding that none of the privacy concerns raised at recent meetings have actually materialized in Pasco County.
That’s a detail worth sitting with: commissioners voted to kill a program not because it was misused, but because of concerns about what it might do — concerns Nocco says his own data shows never came to pass.
The sheriff didn’t hide his frustration. He thanked the commissioners who “stood with law enforcement and public safety” and said the board’s reversal “will impact the solvability of crimes and our ability to locate missing and endangered children and adults, including the victims of human trafficking.” He also warned it will strain an already stretched agency.
Nocco was careful to note the county’s move doesn’t touch the broader landscape of plate readers already in place. Private entities — including HOAs, community development districts and retail properties — operate more license plate readers in Pasco than the Sheriff’s Office ever did, and those cameras aren’t affected. Neither are readers on state-owned rights-of-way, which fall under the Florida Department of Transportation rather than the county.
In effect, the commission’s vote doesn’t reduce how much Pasco County is being monitored by plate readers — it just takes the cameras with the strictest privacy safeguards and the direct accountability of an elected sheriff out of law enforcement’s hands.
The Sheriff’s Office said it will continue operating under its current technology-transition plan through the end of September, when the county agreement lapses.
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