The Woodlands Township board of directors on May 28 voted 6-0 to accept a report from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office for Flock Safety license plate reader camera use. The Flock cameras are used as an investigative tool for MCSO to identify vehicles linked to crime.
After hearing a presentation on how Flock license plate readers work, the township agreed to sign a letter of support to MCSO’s sheriff and district attorney outlining the parameters for Flock discussed at the meeting. The item will go on the agenda for next board meeting.
The overview
Flock cameras are currently in around 5,000 communities across the country and have been in Montgomery County since February, said Ian Leslie, public affairs manager for Flock Safety. In the fiscal year 2026 township budget, $109,500 was used to purchase 30 Flock Safety license plate reader cameras for MCSO to place in strategic locations around The Woodlands. There is an estimated annual ongoing cost of $90,000, according to the agenda.
Data shows that 14% of reported crimes in the U.S. were solved across the country in communities using Flock, Leslie said. He said the cameras take images of license plates coming into the Montgomery County area, but they do not:
- Collect personally identifiable information
- Detect facial recognition
- Keep data past 30 days
MCSO owns the cameras and is the only organization that has access to information collected from flagged license plates. The township doesn’t have the ability to operate and access the cameras, officials said.
“If your vehicle is stolen, as soon as the police report is made, we enter the vehicle in the Texas Crime Information Center, and it is uploaded into the National Crime Information Center database. If it hits Flock, Flock will check it against the records and it'll flag us,” said Rhyan Droddy, command captain for MCSO South Patrol.
Droddy said the drones used by law enforcement are different from Flock. The drones used by the county are a one-time cost, unless something is broken. The drones are used in law enforcement purposes and training for cases such as missing children or barricaded suspects.
According to the township
Board member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs said she wishes residents didn’t need tools like this, but said she understands the need in the community for safety.
“Law enforcement takes such chances, such risks to their lives every day and we appreciate it very much. Anything we can do to make your jobs safer and easier and keep our family safe, we want to give it full consideration,” Sekula-Gibbs said.
Board Chair Brad Bailey said the community deserves full transparency about the type of technology being used.
“When a police officer comes and ask for tools to make sure a criminal's not going to take advantage of my two children or my wife or my neighbors, I want to use the tools. I don’t want to break someone's civil rights, their Fourth Amendment rights or any rights, but I want to make sure that we have a safe community,” Bailey said.
What else
Leslie addressed resident privacy concerns by presenting the compliance features for Flock use. The limitations include:
- Search filters: prevent searches related to immigration and reproductive care
- Federal limitations: no federal access
- Permanent audit logs: communities can require search reason and case number
- Legal response: contract requires an alert for legal request for county data
Bailey suggested all board members sign off on a letter of support to MCSO’s sheriff and district attorney on what the township feels Flock should be and to outline how it operates. The item will go on the agenda for the next board meeting.
Before you go
The board also voted on The Woodlands Express bus wrap design. Community Impact previously reported that the board approved the use of in-house design to create wraps for 14 buses in the current fleet. The new design will not be an additional cost to the township. The new fleet is scheduled for delivery between November 2026 and February 2027.
