At Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s direction, the Texas Department of Transportation has stopped issuing permits allowing Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers to be installed along state roads.<\/p>\n
The pause, confirmed Thursday by an agency spokesperson, does not affect cameras already installed along state rights-of-way, including more than 900 cameras operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cTxDOT\u2019s role is to review permits to ensure license plate readers are installed correctly and safely along state-owned roadways,\u201d an agency spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cThis suspension also includes agreements that are approved but not yet installed.\u201d<\/p>\n
TxDOT clarified that it approves permits for the cameras but does not install the devices, nor does the agency have access to data from Flock cameras installed along state roads.<\/p>\n
A presentation about Flock cameras from the police chief in Schertz, a city northeast of San Antonio, said the pause began Sept. 8. TxDOT did not immediately confirm when the pause began.<\/p>\n
Use of the cameras, which scan all passing vehicles to compile license plate numbers and other identifying data into an easily searched database, has raised mounting privacy concerns.<\/p>\n
TxDOT\u2019s pause followed Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s late August order blocking state funding for Flock cameras as The Texas Tribune prepared to publish an investigation into a small state agency that directed at least $30 million to help fund more than 3,200 Flock cameras across Texas.<\/p>\n
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Aug. 31 ordered his state\u2019s transportation department to remove the cameras from state roads, saying he didn\u2019t want \u201ca surveillance state.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were an estimated 13,000 Flock cameras across Texas in August, but hundreds of the devices have been shut down after Abbott\u2019s funding freeze.<\/p>\n
City councils and county commissions across the state have also been unplugging their cameras in response to pressure from residents who cite privacy concerns and a growing number of police who were arrested or investigated for misusing Flock cameras to stalk people.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement agencies have defended the cameras as a highly effective crime-solving tool that can be effective in reducing vehicle theft and locating missing people.<\/p>\n
__<\/p>\n
This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s direction, the Texas Department of Transportation has stopped issuing permits allowing Flock cameras and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5291,3621,27,29,28,991],"class_list":["post-440338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-ap-a-wire","tag-technology","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-wires-bot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440338","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=440338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}