Edouard makes landfall, Flock cameras, and a historic Austin home is saved
The short version: Bastrop ordered its Flock cameras covered and may dump its contract entirely — a sign that even small Texas cities are pushing back on ALPR surveillance.
Our Take
Buried between a tropical storm update and a landmark house fight, CBS Austin dropped the real headline: Bastrop has ordered its Flock Safety cameras covered up, and the city council could vote next week to kill the contract altogether. That's not a minor procedural footnote — it's a local government admitting the surveillance math isn't adding up the way Flock's sales pitch promised.
This is the pattern we keep seeing across Texas and the country. A city signs on for 'public safety,' the cameras go up quietly, and then residents start asking who actually has access to months of their driving history, who audits the searches, and why a private company is holding the keys to a database tracking everyone's movements — not just suspects. Credit to CBS Austin for even covering this as a live local controversy instead of burying it as a tech puff piece.
If you want to know whether Bastrop, or your own town, has Flock hardware watching your commute, check our camera map. And if your city council hasn't had this debate yet, our take-action page has what you need to start it.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS Austin, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.