Residents and council members press review of Flock license‑plate network and data sharing

A sequence of public commenters on Sept. 30 urged Houston officials to terminate or not renew contracts for Flock license‑plate reader services and to halt use of similar surveillance technology without stronger safeguards.

"Flock cameras collect license plate information and can track down where your vehicles are," a young speaker said, arguing the systems make private movement public and can be misused. Speakers recounted incidents where plate‑reader data were used in immigration enforcement and said Black neighborhoods had notably heavier camera coverage than affluent areas.

Jake Kushner, who has documented searches on the national Flock network, told the council he had identified earlier searches that raised questions about whether they were used for immigration‑related queries and called for an independent review. "We have 1,900,000 searches carried out by HBD [HPD], and more than half have no attributed cause," he said, pressing for outside oversight.

Councilmembers responded: Pollard and Jackson said they had once supported Flock but withdrew that backing after constituent concerns and inconsistent information about where data go. Both called for continued review of technology and data‑use terms before any contract renewal.

No formal contract vote occurred at the meeting; speakers asked for the council to require clearer privacy protections, transparency about data flows, and independent investigation into past searches.