Texas lawmakers have introduced legislation that could significantly curtail or entirely prohibit government use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), including those manufactured by Flock Safety. These proposals have emerged amid mounting concerns regarding the collection and sharing of vehicle location data by Flock cameras, as well as documented instances of law enforcement personnel exploiting the technology for personal purposes.
State Representative John Bucy III, an Austin Democrat, introduced House Bill 331, which would prohibit Texas government agencies from utilizing automatic license plate readers. Separately, State Representative Brian Harrison, a Republican from Midlothian, has proposed a more measured approach through HB 8471, which would permit law enforcement to continue operating the cameras under stricter conditions , specifically requiring a warrant prior to use and limiting their application exclusively to violent crime investigations.
Harrison, who previously introduced legislation to restrict Flock cameras in an earlier legislative session, has suggested that Republican support for the technology was a contributing factor to the party’s setbacks in the November election. “This was a contributing factor to Republicans being defeated because the Republican leadership of the state of Texas had been supporting Flock cameras and forcing Texas taxpayers to fund their own warrantless surveillance for many years,” Harrison stated.
Both Harrison and Bucy expressed confidence that the current legislative session would yield different results, and both remain optimistic that lawmakers will pass meaningful restrictions on the cameras’ use. “I think this is an issue that goes beyond Republicans and Democrats,” Bucy remarked. “I think it was all over the campaign trail from both sides of the aisle.”
These legislative efforts come just months after Governor Greg Abbott directed state agencies to cease using public funds to purchase or operate the cameras. In Dallas, that directive affected nearly half of the police department’s network of more than 600 Flock cameras.
Law enforcement agencies have credited Flock cameras with helping to recover stolen vehicles, locate missing individuals, and assist in solving violent crimes. However, with a nationwide network of approximately 120,000 cameras, critics contend that Flock has effectively constructed an expansive surveillance infrastructure capable of generating searchable records of vehicle movements , including those of individuals who are not under any criminal suspicion.
How Flock cameras work
Flock Safety is among the most extensively deployed providers of automated license plate reader technology in the United States. Each time a vehicle passes one of its cameras, the system captures a still image and converts the visual information into searchable data. This data includes the vehicle’s license plate number, vehicle type, timestamp, and geographic location. The system is also capable of identifying distinguishing vehicle characteristics, such as bumper stickers, roof racks, or missing hubcaps. All collected information is subsequently stored in a database accessible to authorized users.
Flock maintains that its cameras track vehicles rather than individuals. In practice, however, a series of recorded vehicle sightings can effectively reveal a person’s travel patterns and movements. To better understand the system’s capabilities, CBS News Texas provided Dallas police with the license plate number of one of the station’s own vehicles. The department determined that Flock cameras had captured 87 images of that vehicle across North Texas within a single month.
Unlike a GPS device, the system does not continuously track a vehicle’s movement. Instead, each camera generates a time-stamped record at the moment a vehicle passes. A single sighting may disclose little on its own; however, when multiple sightings are plotted on a map, they can begin to illustrate a vehicle’s travel history. While this capability is particularly valuable to investigators seeking stolen vehicles or identifying cars connected to serious crimes, it also means the system routinely collects data on vehicles whose owners are not the subject of any investigation.
Flock helped Dallas police solve a murder case
The investigation into the killing of 20-year-old Aniya Edwards illustrates how law enforcement can leverage multiple camera sightings to construct a case. Detectives established that Edwards had been at a Dallas music studio prior to her death. A search of nearby Flock cameras yielded an image of her Hyundai , and within that same image, a black Dodge was also visible. While a single image was insufficient to establish a connection between the two vehicles, continued investigation uncovered a second Flock camera that had captured both cars miles away and within seconds of each other. Additional cameras subsequently recorded the two vehicles traveling in the same direction, ultimately producing four separate snapshots spanning more than 20 miles.
Although the cameras did not document everything that occurred between those locations, each successive image extended the investigative trail until it reached the area where police allege an attempted robbery took place and Edwards was fatally shot. While Flock technology did not resolve the case independently, the camera data provided a critical lead that, in conjunction with other evidence, assisted investigators in identifying a suspect who was subsequently arrested on a capital murder charge.
The case underscores why law enforcement agencies regard the technology as a valuable investigative tool. Dallas police report that Flock cameras have contributed to solving more than a dozen murder cases in the current year alone, representing approximately 18 percent of all homicide investigations. In the Edwards case, detectives were clearly pursuing a murder investigation with a well-defined investigative purpose. A review of other Flock search records, however, revealed that this level of clarity is not always present.
Search records offered little explanation in some cases
CBS News Texas submitted public records requests for automated license plate reader search logs from police departments throughout Texas. The records contained millions of entries documenting when officers conducted searches and the justifications they provided. Many searches cited clear investigative purposes , such as murder, aggravated robbery, or a suspect vehicle , while others offered minimal explanation. Dallas records spanning 2023 through 2025 included search reasons listed simply as “info,” “LOC,” and “none.” One entry consisting of the single letter “I” appeared nearly 30,000 times across the three-year period.
Assistant Chief William Griffith acknowledged to CBS News Texas that officers likely had legitimate reasons for conducting those searches but failed to provide adequate documentation within the system. “My guess is they are legitimate reasons,” Griffith said. “They just didn’t give a better explanation in there.” Dallas police indicated that supervisors review search activity on a weekly basis, and Griffith confirmed that the department’s internal review found no evidence of officers having misused the system.
In December 2025, Flock introduced a drop-down menu featuring standardized categories modeled after the FBI’s crime data reporting system, a change intended to produce more thorough and consistent audit records.
Former Lufkin officer used Flock to track ex-girlfriend
Concerns surrounding potential misuse of the technology are not without basis. Former Lufkin police officer Zachary Klein pleaded guilty to 100 felony counts of misuse of official information and was sentenced to five years in prison. A Texas Rangers investigation determined that Klein had conducted more than 25,000 improper Flock searches, approximately 18,000 of which involved license plates associated with three individuals , including his former girlfriend and members of her family , according to the Angelina County District Attorney’s Office.
The case highlights both the volume of information available to an officer with system access and the serious consequences that can result when that access is abused. In response to documented cases of misuse, Flock has implemented several safeguards, including standardized search categories, a reduced recommended data-retention period, and software designed to flag unusual search patterns.
During an interview in August 2026, Flock Chief Executive Officer Garrett Langley addressed the impact of the reported misconduct when questioned about officers who had used the system to search for women for personal reasons. “I don’t think that Flock created police abuse,” Langley stated. When asked to reflect on the experiences of the women affected, he added, “It’s horrible, and I apologize.”
It bears noting that the majority of officers with access to the technology have not been accused of misuse. The central concern, however, remains how swiftly misconduct can be detected when it occurs and how many agencies or cameras an unauthorized search may reach.
Wylie removes Flock cameras over data-sharing concerns
The city of Wylie, located approximately 20 miles northeast of Dallas, operated just six Flock cameras. Those cameras, however, were integrated into a broader network that permitted approved external agencies to search data collected within the city. CBS News Texas obtained Wylie’s audit records and found that agencies from across the country had conducted thousands of searches that could have included information gathered by the city’s cameras. Among the listed search reasons were curfew or loitering violations, illegal dumping, and traffic analysis.
The records did not confirm whether every search returned an image captured specifically by a Wylie camera, nor did they consistently provide sufficient detail for city officials to determine whether a given search was warranted or whether Wylie’s data had been accessed. The city approved the cameras in 2024, but uncertainty surrounding how external agencies were utilizing the network led officials to decline contract renewal in the fall. “We can’t control another department on how they access data on our citizens, and so that’s a concern for us,” Mayor Matthew Porter told CBS News Texas. Porter indicated that the city council ultimately concluded it was prudent to suspend the program rather than renew a system with which officials were not entirely comfortable.
Notably, Wylie’s decision to remove its cameras does not necessarily mean that vehicles traveling through the city will cease appearing in Flock’s database. This is because municipalities and police departments are not Flock’s only customers.
Private cameras can also share information with police
Flock cameras are also deployed in retail parking lots, apartment complexes, and residential communities. The company’s initial customers were homeowners associations, not law enforcement agencies, and retailers have since adopted the technology as well. Flock states that its customers retain control over the data their cameras collect and determine whether to share that information with law enforcement.
This private network presents a significant limitation for legislation or local policies that focus exclusively on government-owned cameras. A municipality could remove every Flock camera under its ownership while businesses, apartment complexes, and homeowners associations continue to operate their own devices. If those private customers choose to share their data with police, vehicles traveling through the community could still appear in law enforcement searches. In such a scenario, the collection of information does not necessarily cease , what changes is the identity of the entity collecting it and who controls access to it.
