Texas county shuts down Flock cameras over privacy concerns

Our Take

Credit to CBS News Texas for covering this, because stories where local officials actually reverse course on Flock Safety cameras are still rare — most jurisdictions install first and field questions later, if ever. A county deciding privacy concerns outweigh the sales pitch is the kind of accountability moment we need more of, especially with so little federal guardrails on how ALPR data gets stored, shared, or sold.

What makes these systems worth fighting over isn't just the plate scan — it's the pattern. Flock's network builds a rolling map of where you drive, when, and how often, all without a warrant, and that data routinely gets shared across agency lines with little oversight of who's actually pulling it up or why. One county shutting it down doesn't undo the thousands of cameras still running nationwide, but it proves local pushback can actually work when people show up to meetings and ask hard questions.

If you want to see how saturated your own area is, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push your city council or county commission the way these Texas residents apparently did, our take-action page has the tools to get started.