Paxton-Talarico ad war, Flock camera fight and Bo French backlash
The short version: CBS Texas's Eye on Politics ties a $51M Paxton-Talarico ad war to where Texas AG candidates stand on Flock cameras, proving ALPR surveillance is now a real campaign issue.
Our Take
Credit to CBS Texas's Eye on Politics for digging past the attack-ad noise in the Paxton-Talarico Senate race to ask the question that actually matters to Texans: where do these candidates stand on Flock Safety's license plate reader network blanketing their state? When a $51 million ad blitz still leaves room for a segment on ALPR policy, that tells you surveillance has finally broken into mainstream political coverage — not just activist circles.
The Bo French backlash mentioned in this report is part of a bigger pattern we've tracked for months: local officials and candidates who champion these camera networks are increasingly getting pushback once constituents realize what they actually enable — warrantless location tracking, data sharing across jurisdictions, and vendor contracts negotiated with zero public input. Politicians can't have it both ways, tough on privacy invasion in their stump speeches while quietly signing off on dragnet surveillance back home.
If you want to know whether your own city council or sheriff has brought Flock cameras to your neighborhood, check our camera map before the next election cycle, not after. And if you're ready to push back locally, our take-action page has the tools to start that fight.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS TEXAS, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.