GULF SHORES, Ala. — Another law enforcement agency is standing behind its license plate reader network — and Gulf Shores Police are preparing to pull back the curtain on how theirs is used.
The City of Gulf Shores operates more than 80 Flock cameras, and Police Chief Dan Netemeyer says the technology has helped his department solve a multitude of crimes. A transparency portal launching in the coming weeks will allow residents to see for themselves how the cameras are used.
Chief: ‘Misinformation’ Driving the Debate
Netemeyer defended the system amid a growing statewide debate over Flock cameras — a debate Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson has also weighed into on the Florida side of the line.
“License plate readers have been around for years,” Netemeyer said. “And all of a sudden, recently, it’s been an issue. And this issue is coming from misinformation that’s being put out there with regard to these cameras. I encourage everybody to do their own research. Make sure it’s factual.”
He stressed that the fixed cameras capture only what any passerby could see in public.
“We are not hiding anything. These cameras are in public places,” Netemeyer said. “They are taking a snapshot of a vehicle and a license plate. They’re not going into people’s homes, not tracking inside people’s homes. They’re not following people around. They are fixed objects that are tracking the street to which they are reading plates and getting descriptions of vehicles — no different than a police officer sitting there with a car camera on, filming every car that drives by.”
Training Emphasized Guardrails Against Misuse
This week, Flock officials held a training session with Gulf Shores police and city officials — and Netemeyer says the top theme was preventing abuse of the system.
“The training was more nuts and bolts of how to work the system, but the No. 1 emphasis that came out repeatedly is misuse,” he said. “Flock has a system in place, which has its own audit system that’s triggered if too many searches are being done by one individual or if the searches are outside the parameters of a law enforcement purpose.”
The upcoming transparency portal is designed to build on that accountability, giving the public visibility into how often — and for what purposes — the cameras are queried.
How the Network Came to Gulf Shores
The Gulf Shores City Council approved its contract with Flock in September 2025, and the cameras were installed in the spring. They were placed throughout the city, from parks to the beaches.
As a destination city that swells with visitors much of the year, Netemeyer says the network has become a critical tool — pointing to concrete results already.
“It’s a very powerful tool for us if you look at the crimes that have been solved already,” Netemeyer said. “We had two cases of dementia patients that we recovered in Gulf Shores within minutes. This would not have been done if officers had to drive around looking for vehicle descriptions and doing all these types of things. We’ve recovered a stolen car from another state.”
Annual Renewal Keeps the Decision Local
The contract renews every year, and the city will need to vote on it again when the council approves the budget — meaning the community’s elected leaders will get a recurring say on whether the program continues.
Until then, Gulf Shores officials are betting that transparency — in the form of the public portal — will do more to settle the debate than any single council vote.