Texas Lawmakers Propose Banning Flock Camera Grants by Texas Agency
Democrats in the Texas Senate have filed legislation to block the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority from funding roadside license plate readers, after a Texas Tribune investigation found the agency spent more than $30 million from a $1 auto-insurance fee to help install at least 3,200 Flock cameras. It is one of four bills filed this week to ban or limit the cameras.
The fight over the cameras watching Texas roadways has moved to the Legislature. Democrats in the Texas Senate have proposed legislation to ban state agency grants that enabled law enforcement to erect thousands of Flock surveillance cameras along state roadways, the Texas Tribune reported Thursday — one of four bills filed this week that seek to ban or limit the use of the cameras.
The money trail runs through a fee most Texas drivers never noticed. In 2023, a bill by Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, added a $1 annual fee to Texans' auto insurance policies to fund programs combating catalytic converter theft. An August investigation by the Tribune found the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority had devoted more than $30 million of that money to help install at least 3,200 Flock cameras, and had tapped the fund for a $15.9 million contract intended to help the Department of Public Safety install cameras — 940 of which were erected, building a network the Tribune reported was accessed an average of once every four seconds in June by thousands of law enforcement agencies.
Alvarado said the Flock spending surprised her: roadside cameras were never discussed, she said, as her bill made it through the Legislature with unanimous support from the House and Senate. Her new bill, co-authored by Democratic Sens. Roland Gutierrez, Jose Menendez and Taylor Rehmet, aims to put an end to the authority's grants for automated license plate readers. Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints six of the authority's seven board members, has already ordered a freeze on the funding after the Tribune sent him questions about the grants.
The bills now on file do not all point the same way. Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin, filed a bill to ban public agencies from using automated license plate readers at all, while bills by Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, and Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, would allow the cameras under tighter regulations, including requiring law enforcement to get a warrant before a search. An estimated 13,000 Flock cameras stood in Texas in late August, a number that has since dwindled as cities and counties ended contracts for hundreds of them — and Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, who made opposition to the cameras part of her campaign, said in September that the cameras were never authorized and should be taken down.
