ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Residents in St. Augustine have some big questions for St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office after some small cameras were put up at major intersections in the county.
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License plate-scanning cameras have been placed at several locations throughout the county, but some major locations include 2209 at Race Track Road and right by the Julington Creek Bridge. While the county tells Action News Jax that the cameras have been around since 2017, they now seem to be popping up in new locations.
This now begs the question of privacy: Is it an overstep by the county for the sake of policing?
Several members of the community don’t seem too worried.
“It’s sort of like cell phones. Everybody knows where my cell phone is,” said Stan Halter, who lives in the area, “It doesn’t seem to bother me any, and if it can deter some crime and save a car, why not? No problem.”
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However, Action News Jax also had the chance to speak with Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, who said technology like this can have massive privacy implications, while essentially documenting your exact whereabouts.
“Where I go and where I am and what time, that’s my business. There is no reason for someone to be tracking me,” Stanley told Action News Jax’s Logan MacDonald.
Stanley said widespread surveillance like this was once unthought of regarding technology, but he added that this is now becoming all too common.
Action News Jax has been reaching out to SJSO for several months now about the cameras, but we have yet to hear back.
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