Texas officials confirmed Thursday that they are no longer issuing permits for new automated license plate reader cameras along state highways.
The Texas Department of Transportation, at Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) direction, said it is freezing the installation of all new ALPRs, more commonly known as Flock cameras, along state roads. Around 900 Flock cameras already installed and operated by the state’s Department of Public Safety will remain in use.
“TxDOT’s role is to review permits to ensure license plate readers are installed correctly and safely along state-owned roadways,” an agency spokesperson told multiple outlets. “This suspension also includes agreements that are approved but not yet installed.”
The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority has helped state and local agencies install at least 3,200 Flock cameras since 2023. There were over 13,000 Flock cameras operating across Texas as of August, though some have been shut down due to backlash.
In late August, Abbott ordered state agencies to stop all funding for Flock cameras, though his office emphasized that nearly all Flock cameras in the state are purchased by cities through federal funding. At the time, the governor said Flock cameras were going “to be required to be used responsibly if they’re used at all,” during a radio interview with Glenn Beck.
Abbott’s latest move to target ALPRs comes as scrutiny has grown in recent months regarding the use of the technology, due to concerns that the cameras breach privacy and may infringe on Fourth Amendment rights by obtaining information without a warrant or court order.
Unlike red light cameras, which are generally supposed to be triggered only by a violation, Flock ALPRs capture a digital fingerprint of every passing vehicle. Data collected by ALPRs is retained by the company for seven days before deletion. Law enforcement agencies that contract with Flock can set their own data deletion schedules for footage. Data from the cameras that police or federal authorities are using as part of an investigation is not deleted.
The cameras are used in every state except Alaska by thousands of law enforcement agencies, as well as private businesses and individuals. Entities can hand over information to law enforcement agencies, including across state lines, if they choose to do so. They can also give footage to government agencies to aid with issues such as FBI investigations.
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During a congressional hearing earlier this week, FBI director Kash Patel emphasized the agency can only obtain footage “on a case-by-case basis and not a rolling access basis.” He said Flock cameras help solve many crimes, such as locating the Brown University suspect, and noted the FBI particularly favors ALPRs to help target child predators.
“We have continuously utilized this when people kidnap children and cross state lines,” Patel said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “Then we go to these ALPR leaders and say, ‘Hey, we have a picture of this car. We don’t have any information on it. Can you help us out into where it went?’ And we have saved children over and over again from these child predators. We’ve retrieved these victims. We’re able to track those with this. We have to use it lawfully, but we, the FBI, don’t continue to access that on a rolling basis.”