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After months of quiet deployment, police defend Flock cameras as residents demand transparency
Summary
Police Chief Ron Choi defended the department’s Flock license‑plate reader system at length while more than a dozen residents raised privacy, data‑sharing, and contracting concerns. Council asked staff and the city attorney to review the contract and to invite a Flock representative to a future meeting.
Police Chief Ron Choi gave a detailed briefing on the town’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) system supplied by Flock and answered council questions amid a lengthy and often critical public‑comment period.
Choi said the department uses the system only for criminal‑justice purposes, that access requires entering an offense type and case details, and that Flock retains data for 30 days. "Whenever you access the system, it's gonna ask you to enter certain information... You have to have an offense that you're following," Choi said. He described audit trails and said only supervisors and detectives currently have access.
Still, dozens of residents urged caution or immediate suspension. A sequence of commenters — several identified themselves and submitted written comments — urged the council to publish contracts and policies, asked whether federal grants or third parties contributed to the program, and cited jurisdictions that had terminated Flock contracts. "This is not just license plate readers. This is a government‑operated surveillance system that checks the movement of people's vehicles, stores that data, shares that data, analyzes that data, and connects that data to a much larger national network," one commenter said.
Council asked staff to provide the contract and asked the city attorney to review termination provisions and data‑access clauses. The mayor said the item was not on tonight’s consent agenda and that, before any cameras are moved onto state‑controlled roads (TxDOT), council approval would be required. The chief said his team would provide recurring audit reports and recommended inviting a Flock representative to speak at a future meeting so council and the public could ask company representatives specific questions.
The council did not take a final vote on expanding or terminating the system at this meeting but instructed staff to return with the contract, clearer reporting, and additional background for a future public meeting.
