texas governor suspends funding for flock cameras over privacy concerns - crossroadstoday.com

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has suspended state funding for Flock cameras, the AI-powered license plate readers installed at thousands of locations across the state, citing growing privacy concerns over how the technology collects and stores vehicle data.

Since 2023, the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, a board largely appointed by Abbott himself, helped place more than 3,200 Flock cameras at state and local agency sites across Texas. The cameras automatically capture and store vehicle information, and the debate over who can access that data, and under what circumstances, has been building in Austin for months.

The funding halt puts cities like Lubbock in a complicated spot. Local law enforcement agencies that leaned on state dollars to install or expand their Flock networks now face uncertainty about whether those programs continue as-is, scale back, or look for a different funding source entirely. The privacy questions driving Abbott's decision, specifically around data storage and access, apply just as much to any cameras already running here as they do statewide.

Abbott's move carries a certain irony: the board he mostly appointed spent three-plus years funding that rollout.