Dallas Police Department to discuss future use of Flock cameras with city leaders
The short version: CBS Texas reports Dallas PD touts 49 solved homicides from Flock cameras as the city weighs expanding the program, but solve-rate stats don't equal oversight.
Our Take
CBS Texas's report on Dallas PD's upcoming briefing to city leaders follows a script we've seen in city council chambers across the country: police show up with a tidy number — 49 homicides since 2023 — and use it to justify more cameras, more data sharing, and less scrutiny. Nobody disputes that ALPR hits can help close cases. What's missing from these pitches is any mention of how many plates get scanned to produce that number, how long the data sits in Flock's servers, who else gets access to it, or what happens when the system is wrong.
Dallas residents deserve more than a highlight reel before city leaders sign off on expanding a network that logs the movements of everyone who drives through it, guilty or not. That means public retention schedules, audit logs showing which agencies queried the data and why, and real answers about whether Flock's nationwide network lets outside police departments — including those in states with aggressive immigration or abortion enforcement — pull Dallas plate data without a warrant. A solve-rate stat tells you nothing about any of that.
If you're in Dallas or anywhere else watching your city debate a Flock contract, don't wait for the vendor's slide deck to be the only testimony on record. Check our camera map to see what's already been installed near you, and use our take-action resources to push for transparency before, not after, the cameras go up. Credit to CBS Texas for covering the story — the real fight starts in that city council meeting.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS TEXAS, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.