{"id":464392,"date":"2026-10-13T03:52:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T03:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/464392\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T03:52:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T03:52:46","slug":"fort-worth-council-set-to-receive-briefing-on-flock-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/464392\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth council set to receive briefing on Flock technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

As local governments across America grapple with their relationships with Flock cameras,<\/a> Fort Worth is set to receive an update from its police department about the powerful surveillance tools.<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth City Council is set to receive a presentation from the Fort Worth Police Department on Flock license plate readers at its work session on Nov. 17, a spokesperson for the city of Fort Worth told the Star-Telegram on Oct. 12.<\/p>\n

The presentation was requested earlier this year by multiple city council members, including Chris Nettles and Deborah Peoples.<\/p>\n

Flock license plate readers, used by law enforcement departments across the country, have become a flashpoint in national discussions about surveillance and accountability. License plate readers have been around since the 1970s<\/a> \u2014 but Flock’s tech is more advanced.<\/p>\n

Flock’s “vehicle fingerprint” technology, according to a 2026 contract document obtained by the Star-Telegram through a records request, can see a car’s make, color, license plate, state, missing or covered plates \u2014 and detect bumper stickers and decals.<\/p>\n

The city also has a “community network access” tool that allows feeds from privately owned cameras to be shared via livestream to Fort Worth PD.<\/p>\n

Users can also look up the history of a license plate captured on Flock devices, and access state and nationwide networks of license plates.<\/p>\n

More than 180 contracts with Flock have been cancelled, according to DeFlock the USA.<\/a> City and county governments have voted to end contracts with Flock, or remove the cameras that were installed.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth has had a contract with Flock since 2020. Since then, police chief Eddie Garcia told WFAA, the technology has been used to make more than 2,000 arrests.<\/a><\/p>\n

The presentation comes at a time when police departments and local governments are facing questions about how to hold officers who misuse the powerful technology accountable. In August, Wired reported that a police officer in Georgia<\/a> used Flock more than 50 times over three months to search for the license plate of a former romantic partner who was also a member of the department.<\/p>\n

City council member Michael Crain said that this accountability was key to the details officials are hoping to receive.<\/p>\n

“Supporting effective policing and protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens are not competing goals\u2014we must demand both,” Crain said in a written statement. “Any new technology deployment must strictly dictate how citizen data is accessed, retained, and shared\u2014and mandate strict consequences for misuse.”<\/p>\n

Crain pointed to a 2024 drive-by shooting<\/a> and the 2023 Lake Como shooting<\/a> as crimes that were solved with the help of Flock technology.<\/p>\n

The North Fort Worth Alliance has also advertised a presentation on Flock<\/a>, set for 9 a.m. Oct. 24 at 12209 Timberland Boulevard \u2014 but the date could be pushed back to align with the council presentation.<\/p>\n

“Flock Safety is proud to support the Fort Worth Police Department in helping to keep the community safe,” a spokesperson from Flock said. “We are grateful for opportunities to answer questions from elected officials, neighborhood organizations, and residents.”<\/p>\n

Stephen Lawrence, the founder of DeFlock Fort Worth, said that Fort Worth should become “become mass surveillance free.”<\/p>\n

“It’s painful to see a still-new police chief deploying digital barbed wire across where the west should begin,” Lawrence said in a written statement. “If city council doesn’t wake up, we will have to rely on Austin, D.C., or \u2014 more likely \u2014 [a] citizen petition action.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As local governments across America grapple with their relationships with Flock cameras, Fort Worth is set to receive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-464392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464392","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=464392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}