Bastrop votes to end contract with Flock for license plate reader cameras

Our Take

Add Bastrop to the list. As KVUE reports, the city council has voted to end its contract with Flock Safety, making it another Central Texas community walking back automated license plate reader surveillance after officials and residents took a harder look at what these networks actually do. That's not a coincidence — it's a pattern. Once people learn these cameras log every vehicle's movements, build searchable travel histories, and share data across a national network with little independent oversight, the "it's just for catching stolen cars" pitch stops landing.

What makes these reversals matter is that they prove the surveillance expansion isn't inevitable. Flock's sales model counts on cities signing multi-year deals quietly, without much scrutiny of retention policies, audit logs, or who else gets access to the data. When a council actually does the homework, the contracts often don't survive the conversation. Bastrop joining its neighbors in cutting ties should embolden other city governments sitting on the fence to ask the same hard questions before renewal time.

If you want to see how saturated your own area already is with ALPR cameras, check our camera map, and if you'd like to push your local council toward a vote like Bastrop's, our take-action page has the tools to get started. Credit to KVUE for keeping local accountability reporting on this story.