{"id":432511,"date":"2026-09-11T05:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/432511\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T05:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:24:09","slug":"installation-of-new-flock-cameras-in-texas-halted-following-funding-pause-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/432511\/","title":{"rendered":"Installation of new Flock cameras in Texas halted following funding pause \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas Department of Public Safety has paused the installation of additional automated license plate readers following Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s recent order to pause state funding for Flock cameras.<\/p>\n<p>Flock cameras, a specific brand of automated license plate readers, are often used by DPS to assist law enforcement in missing persons and auto theft investigations, among other criminal investigations, wrote a DPS media and communications spokesperson in an email. DPS did not say they plan to stop using current cameras.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLaw enforcement agencies that did not have signed agreements with DPS could previously access DPS\u2019 (Automated License Plate Reader) network to look up specific and full license plate numbers only,\u201d the spokesperson wrote. \u201cMoving forward, only law enforcement agencies with signed agreements with DPS will be able to conduct searches of any type to access data and images captured on DPS ALPRs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DPS has spent approximately $11 million on about 900 automated license plate readers, they wrote. The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority funded these cameras.<\/p>\n<p>According to reporting from the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/08\/28\/texas-flock-cameras-auto-insurance-fee-mvcpa-grants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> Texas Tribune<\/a>, the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority \u2014 whose board is mostly appointed by the governor \u2014 used $30 million from a state-wide $1 raise to Texan\u2019s auto insurance costs to fund at least 3,200 Flock cameras. The DPS received $15.9 million, the Tribune wrote.<\/p>\n<p>There are 237 Flock cameras in the Austin area at the time of publication, according to data from <a href=\"https:\/\/deflock.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Deflock<\/a>, an open source website that maps license plate readers. Before 2024, there were only 40.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a crackdown across Texas,\u201d wrote Abbott\u2019s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris in a statement. \u201cIn Lufkin, a police officer was indicted on 100 felony charges for misuse of Flock information. Other criminal investigations are underway in other communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Austin Police Department discontinued its Automated License Plate Reader policy in 2025 and does not plan to negotiate a new contract with Flock, APD wrote in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost all Flock cameras in Texas are used by cities, and those cities are increasingly cancelling their contracts with Flock,\u201d Mahaleris wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The Travis County Sheriff\u2019s Department has used Flock cameras when investigating auto theft, missing persons cases and criminal investigations, a Travis County Sheriff\u2019s department spokesperson wrote in a statement. They do not own or lease any Flock cameras and cannot access cameras operated by the Texas Department of Transportation or DPS, they wrote. TxDOT did not respond to a request to comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Department of Public Safety has paused the installation of additional automated license plate readers following Gov.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-432511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432511","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=432511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}