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Residents urge Garland City Council to end Flock/ALPR contracts over privacy and security concerns
Summary
Multiple Garland residents urged the council to remove Automated License Plate Reader funding and cancel the city’s contract with Flock Safety, citing misreads, out‑of‑jurisdiction access, hacking vulnerabilities and impacts on families. Speakers asked the council to reevaluate budgeted ALPR spending.
Several Garland residents used the Aug. 4 public‑hearing portion of the meeting to urge the City Council to remove Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) funding and cancel the city’s contract with Flock Safety.
"Every day, ordinary residents of this city drive to work, school, doctor's appointments... These are routine trips that are photographed, logged, and stored in a searchable national database without a warrant and without suspicion," said Kelsey Katz, a Garland resident, urging the council to eliminate ALPR funding from the budget. Katz added that modern systems capture vehicle details and, she said, sometimes people as well.
Lisa Crawford, another resident, told the council she had provided source‑backed documents alleging misuse, false alerts and inadequate independent audits. "Flock's own published figures state 7 out of every 100 license plates are misread," she said, and pointed to an internal Roseville audit she said found higher error rates in alerts.
Other commenters described personal effects and security worries. Kirsten Miller described finding her license plate flagged in out‑of‑state databases and cited examples she said show cameras positioned near a church and residential front doors; Luis Salazar said his neighborhood’s HOA installed inward‑facing cameras and reported that firmware updates now capture people as well as plates.
Speakers asked the council to delay or remove ALPR line items in the proposed FY2026–27 budget and to require independent audits and clear limits on data sharing, retention and agency access. Council members said the budget hearing record and further hearings remain open and noted additional public hearings on Aug. 11 and Aug. 17 before the council votes on the budget and tax rate.
The public comments in this meeting add to an ongoing local debate over the city’s use of ALPRs and whether additional oversight or contract changes are needed.
