The city of Liberty Hill will terminate its contract with Flock Safety and remove all city-owned Flock automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras after public pushback over privacy and data security concerns.
What you need to know
Liberty Hill City Council voted unanimously on Sept. 9 to end the contract, which was set to automatically renew in October, and to direct city staff to “immediately” remove the cameras.
Liberty Hill owns seven Flock ALPRs, Police Chief Jeff Ringstaff said Aug. 26. Those cameras are located at high-traffic entry and exit points to the city along Hwy. 29, RM 1869, CR 279, and at the intersection of Hwy. 29 and US 183, Ringstaff said.
There are other Flock cameras in the area that are privately owned by businesses or homeowners associations, Ringstaff said. Those cameras are not affected by City Council’s decision.
Quotes of note
“Flock is just one company,” Mayor Crystal Mancilla said. “It’s really the word ‘surveillance’ that we need to use. If it’s surveillance [we’re voting to stop], then it’s all surveillance cameras, whether it’s Flock or another company that does the same thing."
City council members repeatedly voiced their support for the Liberty Hill Police Department and their approval of its officers, saying that their concerns center on the technology itself and on the access others outside the department may have to its data.
“I just want to say that my vote tonight is in no way intended to ever convey any mistrust in our police chief and our police department,” council member Diane Williams said. “My concern is that data could be pulled into a broader mass surveillance system where we no longer can ensure it is used for the purpose and only the purpose of investigating specific cases.”
Council member Tim Hennessy responded to public safety concerns at the Aug. 26 meeting, saying he believes the privacy concerns outweigh the potential benefit to public safety.
“The freedoms we value are rarely lost all at once,” Hennessy said. “More often, they’re given away one reasonable step at a time.”
Some context
The decision comes after lengthy discussion of the city’s contract with Flock at the Aug. 26 City Council meeting and follows a trend of local governments throughout Central Texas cutting ties with Flock and stopping the use of the company’s cameras.
Flock Safety makes ALPRs that photograph all vehicles passing by. The company uses artificial intelligence to interpret the photos, tagging them with data such as license plate numbers, vehicle color, make and model, and other identifying characteristics, Flock Safety representative Ian Leslie said Aug. 26.
That data can then be searched and shared between law enforcement agencies. The data is stored for a set period, usually 30 days and then deleted, Leslie said.
Several Liberty Hill residents voiced concerns at both the Aug. 26 and Sept. 9 meetings about privacy, transparency and accountability.
Ringstaff and Leslie gave presentations on Flock cameras and the city’s use of them Aug. 26, expressing support for their continued use.
Several other cities across Central Texas have recently ended their partnerships with Flock Safety following concerns from residents and local officials.
In Leander, City Council members voted last week to discontinue funding for Flock cameras in the city.
Austin leaders adopted stricter oversight of surveillance technology in May and ended the city’s contract with Flock in June after public pushback.
Pflugerville City Council voted Aug. 25 to end its contract with Flock after the city and police department said in a joint statement that a problem with Flock’s operating system had allowed non-partner law enforcement agencies to access the city’s Flock data without permission. Pflugerville ISD suspended its use of Flock cameras Aug. 26.
