2 -18- 26 Flock Town Hall

Our Take

Credit where it's due: the City of Bandera posted this town hall recording instead of burying the discussion in a closed-door council session. That alone is more transparency than most municipalities offer when they're weighing whether to bolt Flock Safety cameras onto every intersection. Watch it, because the format — officials fielding live questions from residents — is exactly the kind of accountability moment that too many cities skip entirely before signing a Flock contract.

What matters here isn't just what gets said on the dais, it's what gets left unsaid: how long plate data is retained, who else can query it, whether it's shared with state fusion centers or federal agencies, and what happens when the system misidentifies a car. Town halls like this one are useful precisely because they put those questions on record, even if the answers are incomplete or reassuring in ways that don't hold up to scrutiny.

If you're in Bandera or anywhere near it, don't stop at watching the recording — show up to the next meeting, ask about audit logs and data-sharing agreements, and push for public reporting requirements before a contract gets renewed. Check our camera map to see what's already tracking your plates, and hit take action for tools to push back at the local level.