The Carrollton City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday night to renew and extend its contract with Flock for 82 cameras across the city. The decision, involving a contract worth more than $1 million, came shortly after 9 p.m. after council members heard passionate public comments.
The Carrollton City Council discussed the issue at its Sept. 15 meeting. The proposal is to renew and extend their contract, potentially adding 15 more cameras and the software required to run them.
Carrollton Police already have access to 67 Flock cams in the city. Police said the cameras have been instrumental in solving several crimes this year.
Opponents told NBC 5 they planned to make their voices heard at the city council meeting.
The Flock camera debate continues in Dallas.
The city of Dallas is also considering its future with Flock. Hundreds of Flock cameras in the city were supposed to go dark, but police told NBC 5 they’ll stay online for now as the city attorney’s office reviews the matter.
Gov. Greg Abbott blocked state agencies from spending money on Flock cams. There are 684 Flock cams citywide; nearly half are paid for by the state. The half paid for by the state are the ones at risk of being shut down.
Flock cams also serve as license plate readers that give officers the ability to type in a plate and almost instantly find out if it drove by one of the cams. License plate readers have been on police patrol vehicles for decades, but Flock’s nationwide network of cameras has sparked new concerns.
Flock cameras use AI to scan license plates and alert police in real-time. While security experts say they’re a critical public safety tool, privacy experts warn the cameras are a slippery slope to police overreach.
Dallas Police said they helped solve 13% of the city’s business robbery cases and a dozen homicides in 2026 alone.
But local and state officials have expressed concern about overreach, privacy, and abuse of power.
Dallas Police announced new limits on who can access their Flock camera data just last week, preventing outside agencies from access and restricting sharing to agencies within Texas.
At one point, Dallas Police was sharing with more than 1,500 agencies nationwide; now it’s a little more than 200 in Texas.
To see a crowd-sourced map of Flock cameras in your community, visit DeFlock.org.
The department said hundreds of cameras that were set to be cancelled today will remain online as the city attorney’s office reviews the matter. The department is looking for additional funding to keep them in use. NBC 5’s Shannon Miller and Wayne Carter discuss.