‘Get the Flock out of Texas’: State senator calls for ALPR ban - KBTX News 3

State Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst made the case in a Facebook post titled "Get the Flock Out of Texas," writing that the Bill of Rights "is the foundational bedrock of our freedoms" and that those protections matter "even more" when digital surveillance is everywhere. She connected the public backlash against Flock cameras directly to the same fears that drove the founders to write the Fourth Amendment in 1791.

Flock Safety cameras have spread to cities across Texas, scanning and logging license plates automatically. The technology lets law enforcement track vehicle movements without a warrant or any suspicion of wrongdoing, which is the core of Kolkhorst's objection.

For people here in Lubbock, this matters. Flock cameras have been adopted by departments and neighborhoods in cities statewide, and a legislative ban would pull that technology off the streets. Supporters of the cameras argue they help solve crimes faster. Critics say the tradeoff is a permanent, searchable record of where your car has been.

Kolkhorst argues the Fourth Amendment was ratified to stop exactly the kind of general, suspicionless searches that were common under British rule, and that the argument is no less relevant now.