Wylie votes to shut down Flock license plate cameras over data privacy concerns

Our Take

Credit to RickieBobbieNO26 for catching this one on camera: a unanimous 7-0 vote in Wylie, Texas to shut down the city's Flock Safety program. What's notable isn't just the outcome, it's the reasoning. Mayor Matthew Porter didn't dismiss ALPRs as useless for police work. He specifically flagged the part that should worry every city council considering one of these contracts: once your plate data hits Flock's servers, it isn't just "your" data anymore. It gets pooled, shared, and queried by a sprawling network of other departments you have zero control over.

That's the structural problem with Flock's model, and it's why a single city council vote matters beyond city limits. Flock sells itself to each town as a local tool for solving local crimes, but the backend is a national surveillance network stitched together by thousands of these contracts. Wylie residents were having their movements logged regardless of whether they were suspects in anything, and that data could end up in the hands of agencies with no accountability to Wylie voters. $27,000 a year for six cameras is cheap for the city, but the real cost was never on the invoice.

Every one of these votes is a reminder that these contracts are not permanent, and councils can reverse course once residents start asking hard questions about where the data goes. If you want to see whether your own town has Flock cameras already installed, check our map, and if you'd rather not wait for a viral city council moment to get your own council moving, our take-action page has the tools to start that fight now.