Miami Beach will resist DeSantis by moving license plate readers to businesses

Miami Beach is pushing back against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order to remove license plate reader cameras from state roads and the city is already looking at ways to keep the program alive by moving the cameras to private property.

Read more ‘Not fully investigated’: Where the Hope Florida grand jury didn’t look

DeSantis ordered all license plate reader cameras removed from state roads. The state gave local jurisdictions until the end of the month to comply.

Miami-Dade County and Pembroke Pines said they would follow the order. Miami Beach is taking a different approach.

Mayor Steven Meiner signed a letter with other mayors asking the governor to reconsider the ban.

“I understand the privacy concerns, but there’s a way to do this and balance both. And we’re doing that. We’re balancing the privacy concerns. We’re also going to continue to effectively deter crime,” Meiner said.

Meiner said businesses, including hotels and condominiums, have already reached out and said they would voluntarily take the cameras on their property.

Miami Beach Police Chief Wayne Jones said the department has used license plate readers since 2013, updating privacy policies along the way and that there have been no reports of misuse.

Jones pointed to a recent case to illustrate the cameras’ value.

“A fellow started in Coral Gables with an AR-15, threatening folks in an office building, he ran off to his car, a witness saw the tag number, gave that to Coral Gables police they put that through our system. An hour and a half later we caught him here in Miami Beach,” Jones said.

Read more Miami Beach will resist DeSantis by moving license plate readers to businesses

Homeowners on the Venetian Islands already pay for private Flock cameras to help guard their neighborhoods.

“We don’t hide that we have those on the Venetian Islands so there’s a deterrence as well, so crimes that have been committed have gone down in correlation with installing these LPRs,” said Chad, a representative from a Venetian Islands homeowner’s association.

Not everyone on the Miami Beach City Commission is fully on board. Commissioner David Suarez said he wants civilian oversight of the data, not just police control.

“There’s no question that these LPRs and surveillance have helped police officers catch criminals. But there should be a fine line between privacy and a tool for police to use when it comes to public safety,” Suarez said.

Meiner said he supports strong safeguards and accountability for any officer who misuses the system.

“I’m all for putting the strongest safeguards in place to make sure that any law enforcement officer that abuses this and again, we haven’t had it in Miami Beach, but if they abuse it, they should be held accountable to the strictest, strictest standards of the law,” Meiner said.

Chief Jones is scheduled to return to the commission on Oct. 14 to present an outline of additional safeguards for the program.

Read more Deportation flight delays, ICE’s last-minute adds leave Haitian officials scrambling

This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami.