Leaders of Texas city vote unanimously to remove Flock cameras after heated council meeting
The short version: A Texas city council voted unanimously to rip out its Flock ALPR cameras after residents learned they'd been quietly slipped into the budget, as reported by WFAA.
Our Take
Credit to WFAA for surfacing a story that's becoming a familiar pattern nationwide: a city government installs a network of license plate readers as a line item, nobody outside city hall notices until the cameras are already up, and then the public shows up furious once they realize what happened. That anger boiled over into a unanimous vote to remove the system entirely — a rare and encouraging outcome.
What's notable here isn't just the reversal, it's the process failure that caused it. Flock's sales pitch to local governments often bypasses the kind of open debate that surveillance infrastructure deserves — no public hearing on data retention, sharing agreements, or who gets access to your driving history. When residents actually get a say, plenty of them say no. That's the whole reason transparency matters before deployment, not after.
This case should be a playbook for other communities: check your city council's consent agenda, ask who approved the cameras and how they're used, and push back before the boxes are bolted to poles. Check our map to see if Flock has already landed near you, and visit take action for tools to get it on your council's agenda before it's a done deal.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WFAA, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.