Roadside Surveillance Cameras Banned In Lake County

    The Lake County Commission on Tuesday approved an ordinance that when finalized will prohibit the placement of surveillance cameras on county rights of way. The new law comes after a recent incident where a private company through a partnership with the Lake County Sheriff's Office installed nearly 100 license tag reading cameras throughout the county without proper permitting.
   The new ordinance, brought forward by commissioner Josh Blake, prohibits cameras on any county-maintained right of way, with certain exceptions. One is for Florida Department of Transportation cameras, and another is for homeowners associations who have cameras.
   Additionally, camera requests can be made to the commission.
   Blake said he supported the prohibition, over another option of simply restricting camera use to ‘remove any possibility of abuse.’   Blake cited a recent hacking of the US State Department as a reason that gathering surveillance data could lead to private citizens being compromised.
   “If the US State Department can be hacked, anyone can be.”
   The ordinance was approved unanimously by the commission, with the exception of member Doug Shields, who was not present at the time of the vote.