Guadalupe County terminates Flock Safety contract amid rising vandalism costs

Our Take

Credit to News 4 (WOAI) San Antonio for catching this one: a Texas county commissioners court actually did the math on its Flock Safety contract and decided the cameras weren't worth the price tag once vandalism repair costs started piling up. That's a rare outcome. Most jurisdictions renew these deals on autopilot, treating "public safety technology" as an untouchable line item no matter what it costs taxpayers or civil liberties.

The vandalism angle is worth sitting with. These cameras get torn down, spray-painted, or disabled by regular people who've decided they don't want a private company logging every car that passes through their county, with no warrant and no real oversight of how that data gets used or shared. When the cost of defending that surveillance network against its own residents outweighs whatever crime-fighting value commissioners thought they were buying, that's the market sending a signal. Guadalupe County listened.

Every contract that gets killed is proof these systems aren't permanent fixtures — they're political decisions that can be reversed. If you want to see what's watching you locally, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for vandalism to do the work, there are better ways to push your own county to cut ties — start at take action.