Get the Flock Out of Texas
The short version: Texas Civil Rights Project exposes how Harris County's unchecked Flock network let deputies abuse access, proving ALPRs need real oversight, not blind trust.
Our Take
Texas Civil Rights Project's "Get the Flock Out of Texas" lands on the exact problem we keep flagging: these camera networks get deployed first and governed never. When three Harris County deputies get suspended for abusing Flock access, that's not a rogue glitch — it's the predictable result of handing law enforcement a searchable map of everyone's daily movements with no audit trail anyone outside the department actually checks.
The deeper issue TCRP points to is the one Flock Safety doesn't put on its sales brochures: this isn't just a public-safety tool, it's a data business. Your plate, your route to church, the parking lot at your kid's school — all of it becomes raw material for a company building location profiles and sharing them with third parties. That's mission creep from "find the stolen car" to "know everyone's patterns of life," and Houston residents didn't get a meaningful vote on it.
Credit to Texas Civil Rights Project for turning local abuse cases into a statewide organizing push instead of letting it die as a one-week news story. If you want to see how dense this surveillance net already is in your own neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on your city council or sheriff's office, our take-action page has the tools to do it.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Texas Civil Rights Project, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.