{"id":171926,"date":"2026-02-19T21:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/171926\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:23:08","slug":"fact-check-does-the-el-paso-county-sheriffs-office-use-flock-safety-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/171926\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact check: Does the El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office use Flock Safety cameras?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>No.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771536187_819_factBriefImage.jpeg\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:150px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office does not \u201csubscribe\u201d to Flock Safety cameras or participate in its license plate reader network, according to a letter from the El Paso County Attorney\u2019s Office on its behalf.<\/p>\n<p>The letter was in response to an open records request about the sheriff\u2019s use of the cameras, which collect vehicles\u2019 make, model, color, area and license plate type, and visible damage or alterations.<\/p>\n<p>At least 150 Flock Safety automated license plate readers operate throughout the city of El Paso, according to an August 2025 memo from El Paso Police Department Chief Peter Pacillas. That contract ends May 16, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Horizon City Police Department contracted with Flock for three license plate readers, the November 2024 Horizon City Council meeting minutes show. The city of Socorro Police Department has seven similar cameras under a contract with different companies, according to August 2024 agenda minutes.<\/p>\n<p>This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ElPaso\/comments\/1loaaij\/comment\/n0upky9\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this one<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Editor\u2019s Note: El Paso Matters has partnered with <a href=\"https:\/\/gigafact.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Gigafact<\/a> to produce <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasomatters.org\/2024\/01\/30\/el-paso-matters-gigafact-fact-check-partnership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u201cfact briefs\u201d<\/a> that examine claims about issues shaping our community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sources<\/p>\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/elpasomatters.org\/author\/brandy-ruiz\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Brandy-Ruiz-scaled-e1640132858282-80x80.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrandy Ruiz is an audience engagement reporter at El Paso Matters. She joined the staff in 2021 as a social media intern, completed a summer fellowship at the Texas Tribune and graduated with a degree&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/elpasomatters.org\/author\/brandy-ruiz\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Brandy Ruiz\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. The El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office does not \u201csubscribe\u201d to Flock Safety cameras or participate in its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,3927,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-171926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news","11":"tag-fact-check","12":"tag-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}