Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission used law enforcement database to secretly surveil at least 16 environmental advocates and critics

Beginning no later than 2023 and continuing through 2025, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission used its law enforcement access to the state Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) to secretly pull the personal records of at least 16 environmental advocates who had publicly criticized the agency. FWC officers falsely classified each database search as a "criminal investigation," but an agency spokesperson later acknowledged to the Orlando Sentinel that there were no active criminal investigations of any of the targeted individuals.

The DAVID database is legally restricted to legitimate law enforcement use and contains far more than driving records — it includes Social Security numbers, home addresses, medical disability records, signatures, and emergency contacts. The FWC also reportedly used Flock camera networks on Florida highways to track some targets' travel patterns after obtaining their vehicle information.

Known targets included prominent environmental advocates: Katrina Shadix, founder of Bear Warriors United, had her records pulled 17 times; Chuck O'Neal of Speak Up Wekiva — who organized against the FWC's bear hunt and ran the 2024 "No to 2" campaign opposing a constitutional amendment backed by FWC chair Rodney Barreto — was the most heavily surveilled target. Valerie Anderson of Friends of Split Oak Forest had spoken against an FWC toll-road decision. Rhonda Roff of the Sierra Club's Calusa Chapter and documentary filmmaker Brent Fannin — who had never attended an FWC meeting — also had records pulled.

The scandal came to light after Fannin received an anonymous tip that the FWC was tracking him. He filed a public records request with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and discovered that two FWC employees had accessed his driving records seven times in April and June 2025, each time invoking a "criminal investigation" pretext. When other critics filed similar requests, at least 16 environmental advocates confirmed their records had been accessed.

FWC Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto, a Miami developer and DeSantis campaign contributor, admitted the records access to the Miami Herald but characterized it as a routine safety check following threats during the bear hunt controversy. Some targets had never attended an FWC meeting, undercutting the security rationale. FWC communications director Shannon Knowles denied the agency weaponized its law enforcement authority, claiming the searches were necessary to assess security risks. Multiple targets announced plans to sue the commission for violations of the federal Driver Privacy Protection Act.

Updates

2026-07-23 — Sierra Club Florida called searches unauthorized political retaliation [6]

Sierra Club Florida issued a statement condemning the FWC searches as unauthorized, saying Conservation Committee co-chair Sandy Moise learned through a public-records request that she had been listed as under a "criminal investigation" without notification and that her driving records had been pulled while she was advocating for FWC reforms. The group called the incident political retaliation and urged changes to FWC's commissioner-appointment process.

2026-07-29 — FWC defended searches as scope grew to at least 21 advocates [4, 5]

FWC did not retract or apologize for the searches. Chair Rodney Barreto and communications director Shannon Knowles said the database inquiries were conducted for "public safety purposes" and threat assessment, and the agency released a list of anonymous social-media comments it said justified the reviews. Several of the environmentalists named on the list disputed writing the cited comments and accused FWC of running a smear campaign; state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith filed a complaint with the Florida Office of Inspector General over the agency's conduct. Continued public-records requests found FWC had searched driving records of at least 21 advocates, including Chuck O'Neal, whose records were pulled 28 times over three years, and Ben Olsen, searched 14 times by two officers in April 2024 — expanding the total beyond the 16 critics previously reported.