Texas halts permits for new Flock cameras along state roads
The short version: Texas's governor just hit pause on new Flock ALPR permits along state roads — a rare political brake on the surveillance dragnet's expansion.
Our Take
Give credit where it's due: CBS19 is flagging a real crack in the surveillance-industrial complex. When a red-state governor like Greg Abbott tells TxDOT to stop rubber-stamping new license plate reader permits along state roads, it's a sign that the bipartisan backlash against Flock Safety isn't just coastal chatter — it's reaching the people who actually control the rights-of-way these cameras get bolted to.
Permits are the quiet machinery behind this whole industry. Nobody votes on a TxDOT permit, but without one, Flock's "nonprofit" partners and local police departments can't legally stick a camera pole on a state highway shoulder. A halt like this doesn't rip out existing hardware, but it slows the next thousand cameras from going up while questions about oversight, data retention, and who's actually auditing these networks finally get asked out loud.
Texans curious whether a camera near them is affected by this freeze — or installed before it — can check our live map, and anyone who wants to push their own city council or state rep to follow Austin's lead should start with our action toolkit.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS19, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.