Bastrop cancels Flock contract

Our Take

Credit to KXAN for tracking this one closely — Bastrop's city council didn't just quietly let a Flock contract lapse, they voted to actively cancel it. That's a meaningful distinction. It means enough residents and officials looked at the cost, the scope creep, and the lack of hard evidence that these camera networks deliver on their crime-fighting promises, and decided it wasn't worth it. When a city walks away from a live contract rather than just not renewing, that's a signal other councils should be paying attention to.

Bastrop joins a growing list of Central Texas communities where Flock's pitch — easy wins on stolen cars, missing persons, the occasional headline-grabbing arrest — is running into harder questions about who can access the data, how long it's retained, and whether local police are quietly sharing plate reads with federal agencies or out-of-state departments with very different priorities. Once a camera network exists, the use creeps. That's the pattern we keep seeing nationwide, and it's exactly why residents are starting to push back before the system becomes permanent infrastructure.

If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR cameras are already watching your route to work or your kid's school, check our camera map. And if your city hasn't had this conversation yet, our take-action page has the tools to start it.