Lawmakers added $1 to Texans’ car insurance policies. That money paid for thousands of Flock cameras

In 2023, the Texas Legislature unanimously handed a regulation elevating auto insurance prices for Texans by $1 to fight rampant catalytic converter theft.

Three years later, a little-known state company has devoted a minimum of $30 million of that payment towards supercharging the state’s Flock surveillance community, putting cameras alongside highways and streets from El Paso to the Louisiana border, an evaluation by The Texas Tribune discovered.

The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, led by a board principally appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, has turned the $1 payment hike into a minimum of 3,200 Flock cameras.

The company has awarded no fewer than 95 grants to assist regulation enforcement companies buy and keep about 2,000 Flock cameras. Another $15.9 million helps the Texas Department of Public Safety add virtually 1,200 extra.

The effort is way from over. In early August, the company authorized one other $3 million to assist DPS set up 583 extra cameras alongside Texas tollways over the following 12 months.

Miguel Rodriguez, chair of the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, mentioned throughout an August 2023 meeting that he hoped to use proceeds from the payment improve to “cover the entire state” with cameras.

Rodriguez, who can be the Laredo Police Chief, sees the cameras as a strong regulation enforcement software, notably to fight felony organizations.

“That kind of capability directly disrupts the operational advantage these transnational criminal organizations rely on, and it strengthens our ability to protect both Texas communities and the broader region,” he mentioned in an e-mail.

But on Friday night, after a number of requests for remark from the Tribune about its findings, Abbott’s workplace mentioned the governor was pausing all state funding for native grants to be used for Flock cameras.

“To the extent that cities get any funding for those cameras, most of it comes from the federal government. To the extent any funding comes from Texas agencies, those agencies are clarifying that those funds cannot be used for Flock cameras,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement shared first with the Tribune.

Start your day with important information from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.

The $1 per 12 months payment improve has raised an estimated $81 million, permitting the authority to funnel $50.8 million into 234 grants which have helped reimburse police departments for officers, crime analysts and attorneys to prosecute vehicular crimes, in addition to drones and different surveillance units.

The Tribune discovered company grants to police departments ranged from $7,000 for two Flock cameras in Bellmead, close to Waco, to virtually $1.7 million for 201 cameras in Dallas. Some metropolis networks — just like the 165 cameras in Laredo and 150 in El Paso — have been completely sponsored by the grants.

The state company doesn’t element how a lot of its grant money went to Flock cameras. Instead, the Tribune tracked the grants by reviewing the car authority’s assembly information, in addition to paperwork, agendas and discussions from 101 metropolis councils and county commissions that authorized or mentioned Flock-related grants.

It is probably going the authority has paid for extra Flock cameras than the Tribune evaluation discovered as a result of 124 grants lack clear public documentation about what was bought.

The statewide effort to proliferate Flock cameras comes as backlash is mounting over the surveillance, together with from some members of the Legislature, the place the $1 payment was authorized with out opposition.

“The sheer volume of information captured is not something that is entertained, in my view, by the Fourth Amendment,” mentioned Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville.

(AP)             

State Sen. Carol Alvarado and Rep. Jeff Leach, the invoice’s creator and House sponsor, mentioned surveillance cameras have been by no means mentioned when the bill was thought of. Alvarado mentioned she was stunned to be taught from the Tribune that the insurance payment was funding AI-supported license plate readers.

“I did not have that in mind when we passed the bill,” mentioned Alvarado, D-Houston. “When I think of combating crime, I’m thinking … more boots on the ground, hiring more officers to tackle the crime or some type of undercover work.”

Alvarado mentioned there’s a “fine line” between defending the general public from crime and defending folks’s privateness, however mentioned she didn’t plan to file laws to shift the grant necessities.

Flock cameras, the nation’s mostly used license plate reader, create a “vehicle fingerprint” with the use of synthetic intelligence — storing every car’s license plate, make, mannequin, shade and particulars reminiscent of dents and bumper stickers in a database accessible by regulation enforcement throughout the nation with out having to receive a search warrant.

The actual quantity of Flock cameras in Texas is unclear. DeFlock, an anti-surveillance watchdog that has mapped the places of Flock cameras utilizing verified crowdsourcing, has recognized about 13,000 within the state. By that rely, the insurance payment improve has paid for one in 4 Texas cameras.

That additionally represents a pointy improve in Flock cameras within the state since December 2023, when an organization spokesperson instructed the car authority’s board that there have been about 7,500 cameras within the state.

Flock doesn’t disclose what number of cameras it has within the area, however Texas is estimated to have the second most within the nation, after California. Nationally, Flock officers say, about 7,000 regulation enforcement companies use a complete of 120,000 cameras and different surveillance merchandise.

In Texas, state companies don’t rely solely on car authority grants to add surveillance units, and Abbott’s workplace pointed to federal grants for funding the cameras. DPS, for instance, has a $28.5 million contract for Flock cameras. But the grants have helped get the cameras into the arms of the state’s smaller police departments which will have struggled with the price of the gear.

Departments that decide in to Flock’s nationwide lookup program can search one another’s information from anyplace within the nation, permitting automobiles to be tracked with unprecedented effectivity.

The capability to share information “has been one of the most effective ways Flock has been able to help find, just last year, over 10,000 missing persons,” Flock spokesperson Trevor Chandler mentioned in an interview.

             

But for a quickly rising coalition of Texans opposed to the cameras, the Flock community is a harmful mixture of invasive surveillance and restricted oversight that undermines privateness rights.

Kenneth Feagins, an organizer with DFW DeFlock, one of a number of new grassroots anti-surveillance teams within the state, mentioned he sees an “alarming trend” of police improperly accessing a community that may amass information on the place folks stay, store, worship and work.

“For me, it’s always been the question of, well, how much liberty are we willing to trade for safety?” Feagins mentioned.

Recently revealed examples of misuse — together with law enforcement officials utilizing Flock information to stalk ex-partners and colleagues — have sharpened these considerations.

A Lufkin officer was indicted Aug. 24 on 100 counts of misusing official data, which Abbott cited as a regarding improvement throughout a Friday radio interview. Officers in Baytown, Harris County, Fort Bend County, Temple and Pasadena even have been arrested, disciplined or investigated.

“There’s a lot of malicious things that can be done with this data, and those things are no longer hypothetical,” Feagins mentioned.

Cameras “changed the game” for police

The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority was established by the Legislature in 1991 to fight car theft.

The authority is led by a DPS official and 6 governor-appointed board members — two from regulation enforcement, two from the insurance business and two client representatives.

The car authority primarily flexes its muscle through grants funded by charges added to annual auto insurance premiums — $1 initially, rising to $2 in 2011 and $4 in 2019 — that largely went to fund activity pressure efforts for police departments.

In 2023, with catalytic converter theft spiking throughout Texas, lawmakers authorized including one other $1 to the insurance payment in a invoice named for Harris County Deputy Darren Almendarez, who was shot to demise after interrupting catalytic converter thieves in a grocery retailer parking zone.

The laws made no reference to license plate readers, and Rep. Brian Harrison, who voted for the invoice, mentioned he wasn’t conscious of any conversations about utilizing the payment improve that manner. The Midlothian Republican filed payments that 12 months and in 2025 to require a warrant earlier than police might entry license plate reader information.

“In a million years, I never could have even contemplated that this would be used to fund what is effectively warrantless surveillance,” Harrison mentioned. “Otherwise, I can’t imagine it would have gotten unanimous support. I sure as hell wouldn’t have voted for it if I knew some bureaucrat was going to redirect the money to Flock cameras.”

Anticipating hundreds of thousands from the $1 insurance payment hike, the car authority in 2023 requested regulation enforcement for recommendation on how finest to spend the money. Automatic license plate readers like Flock cameras have been by far the best choice for combatting catalytic converter theft, beating out additional time for investigators and extra coaching.

The cameras, Rodriguez mentioned, are notably useful for addressing catalytic converter theft, a “mobile, high-volume, low-witness crime” the place the car used is usually the one lead.

Without technological assist, departments have been left working with partial descriptions taken from grainy surveillance footage of suspect automobiles, Rodriguez mentioned.

Data from the license plate readers, recognized in regulation enforcement as LPRs, was searched 62,000 occasions in 2025, main to about 1,660 cleared catalytic converter theft circumstances, a report from the authority mentioned.

Pasadena Police Sgt. Douglas Buckert mentioned the cameras “changed the game” for catalytic converter theft investigations.

“The number of leads we’ve gotten since our department has deployed Flock cameras is outrageous,” Buckert instructed the authority in early 2024. “I could have six more investigators and not get it all done.”

Grant-funded cameras, far more than different expertise, have additionally expanded the attain of police in investigations far past catalytic converter circumstances, division officers say.

Dallas Police Sgt. Bryan Roden instructed board members throughout a January meeting that an authority grant let his division improve its community from 100 to 300 cameras, serving to to bust a million-dollar tire theft ring and clear up successful and run. Working with the Department of Homeland Security, Dallas police situated a fugitive wished for cocaine manufacturing through the use of Flock cameras he repeatedly handed to construct a “pattern of life assessment,” Roden mentioned.

(Comedy Central)             

Temple Police crime analyst Mike Treehern instructed the Tribune that the cameras helped lower the quantity of stolen automobiles in his metropolis, the place 84% of their Flock cameras are funded by the state grant.

“It’s absolutely helped us, and we would not have anywhere near the amount of cameras that we do without [vehicle authority] funds,” Treehern mentioned.

The grant has additionally been a pressure multiplier for smaller departments. In Cibolo, a metropolis north of San Antonio with a inhabitants of 36,000, an authority grant multiplied the quantity of Flock cameras from 11 to 52.

“Honestly, a lot of our surrounding communities started looking at them, specifically through the [Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority],” Cibolo Police Lt. John Wells instructed board members in a January meeting. “Seguin was looking at them, Guadalupe County, the New Braunfels Police Department, all of our neighbors, so we started looking as well.”

Hannah Foust, founder of DeFlock Carrollton, mentioned the cameras give police surveillance energy nicely in extra of what’s wanted to cease car thieves.

“I do think that motor vehicle theft is a concern, it’s an issue,” Foust mentioned. “[But] I do think that this grant program, and the way it’s been used … it really shifts the focus to a broader surveillance program, as opposed to focusing on catalytic converter prevention.”

$1 payment hike helped DPS develop its Flock community

The authority’s most vital funding in Flock got here in 2025 when it signed a three-year, $15.9 million contract with DPS to set up 1,183 cameras in a venture largely overseen by DPS Major Sharon Jones, the board’s self-described “pro Flock” member who left the place Aug. 1.

The contract goals to bolster DPS’ community of cameras and make it accessible to native regulation enforcement companies in locations that in any other case couldn’t be simply reached — together with native municipalities which might be resistant to the surveillance.

Patrick McBroom, police commander for the Panhandle Auto Burglary and Theft Unit, mentioned DPS cameras assist his activity pressure monitor interstate site visitors on the Oklahoma and New Mexico borders — areas of Texas past the view of 138 grant-funded cameras his workforce displays.

“All those roads leading out and into Texas have DPS cameras on them, so if we have stolen items that may be going out of state, we’re able to look at those cameras to see if those vehicles have left the state,” McBroom mentioned.

During an April dialog in regards to the DPS contract, Rodriguez famous the state police pressure’s cameras might enhance surveillance in areas the place locals are unwilling to set up their very own cameras. A rising quantity of cities and counties, together with Austin, have canceled their Flock contracts within the face of residents’ privateness considerations.

“I think that if for whatever reason you are within those jurisdictions that do not want Flock, let’s get together with DPS, [so] that, you know, we can put those in state right-of-way. And there’s nothing that they can tell us,” Rodriguez mentioned to Jones.

Rodriguez instructed the Tribune that the DPS community offers a wanted crime-fighting software in areas hostile to Flock cameras and comparable units.

Almost 100 municipalities within the U.S. have ended their Flock contracts in response to public outcry, together with a number of in Texas, reminiscent of Bandera and Hood County. Both had acquired grants for their cameras however ended their contracts after points with Flock set up and in response to public uproar over their use.

             

             

As criticism over the cameras has exploded — together with units that have been reduce down or vandalized as acts of protest — company board members have expressed frustration at what they see as misinformation that clouds the optimistic impression from the cameras.

“We’ll have a larger conversation regarding the need to educate the public, and we must put a stamp on those who are spreading false information on license plate readers,” Jones mentioned in a July grant assembly.

“A concern for our privacy”

Foust began Carrollton’s DeFlock group after her neighbors expressed frustration on the cameras’ fast unfold. Spotting a digicam alongside the route her youngsters stroll to faculty gave her pause; seeing one go up in entrance of her group recreation heart made her act.

“You can’t enter or exit that complex without passing a Flock camera, and that’s also my polling place, so that really gave me a strong reaction,” Foust mentioned. “They were in places that we normally feel very safe at, and there’s no concerns for our safety, for our children’s well-being, but there suddenly was a concern for our privacy.”

Foust is open to focus on a spread of options to her considerations, together with motion by the Texas Legislature, however mentioned step one is getting metropolis officers to be clear about their use.

“I think before we can have a true and honest conversation about what legislation might look like or what guardrails or safeguards could be put in place, I think we need to start on a level playing field of understanding,” Foust mentioned. “What is the system, what is it capable of, and how could it be set up in a way that’s supposedly safe?”

Harrison and Little mentioned they intend to file payments subsequent legislative session banning the units as a result of they imagine the cameras violate the Fourth Amendment’s safety towards unreasonable searches. Little mentioned he’s notably involved about whether or not huge quantities of private information is securely saved and whether or not Flock, a personal firm, ought to give you the chance to entry it.

“The people in Lewisville, Texas have a reasonable expectation of privacy from police officers in Pampa, Texas, and yet they can observe all that data,” Little mentioned. “So the sharing of it across state lines, across jurisdictional lines, to me is highly problematic.”

Harrison mentioned he was “shocked and dismayed” that so few Republicans had spoken out towards Flock cameras and what he calls blatant constitutional violations. He additionally mentioned state officers ought to take extra quick motion to “shut off” Flock grants as a result of legislators by no means supposed to use the insurance payment improve for cameras.

“I think the Legislature shouldn’t take this sitting down. I think the governor should act on this,” Harrison mentioned. “If that’s happening, what that means is there’s clearly no explicit legislative intent or direction for that to be happening.”

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.