As we’ve seen in other cities around Houston, Sugar Land has approved more spending more money on surveillance tech, including license plate readers.

“What I like to tell folks, and make sure that they understand is that it’s a public safety tool” said Sugar Land police chief, Pete Lara, “It’s not a surveillance system or anything of that type. They don’t use any type of facial recognition, they don’t track people. We’re pretty proud of the program that we have here for the city of Sugar Land. It’s been very successful.”

The Sugar Land City Council approved a new contract with ‘Flock Safety’ at $2.2 million.

“It’s a public safety tool, and we use it for legitimate law enforcement purposes” Chief Lara told KTRH, “The priority here is solving crimes, and keeping the community safe.”

But there are concerns, and growing scrutiny over the increase of surveillance tech. Travis Crabtree is a Houston based attorney, and privacy expert.

“Does it mean they go another inch, and they start using drones to look at your house, or to look in your backyard” said Crabtree, “That’s when things start to go a little too far, and there should be public backlash against that.”