Flock, ALPRs, and surveillance
Investigating Flock
Pflugerville ended its Flock Safety contract after records showed 459 outside agencies had access and ran almost 1.6 million searches against our data. That discovery came after nine months of work on transparency, audits, policy, public records, and contract terms. This is the record of what we found and what another city should examine before it signs or renews a similar agreement.
Current status: Flock contract, camera status, and official records
My advice to cities and elected officials
Inspect the system you have before you trust the product you were sold.
Identify every device, camera feed, database, integration, outside user, and online term tied to the system. Pull the individual search logs. Fix the local policy and transparency gaps immediately. Then require the vendor to put data limits, liability, security duties, and a real exit in the contract. If those protections cannot be guaranteed, do not sign the agreement.
Why I’m publishing this
I started by looking for a responsible path to keep the system.
Pflugerville could fix some problems through better local policy, search documentation, auditing, and public reporting. Other risks depended on Flock, its contract, and a national network the City could not fully control. The articles below separate those questions and show how I reached my conclusion.
Three-part series
Read the investigation
- 01 What I Learned Investigating Flock in Pflugerville: A Field Guide for Elected Officials A practical investigation sequence based on nine months of work in Pflugerville, including transparency, audit logs, public records, local policy, contract negotiations, and the final decision.
- 02 What Flock Agreed to Put in Pflugerville’s Proposed Contract, and What It Left Out The protections Flock accepted, the terms it left unresolved, and a 23-point negotiation checklist covering liability, data, security, outside access, and exit rights.
- 03 Why I Was Already Voting No on Flock, Before We Found the Data Breach The prepared remarks I wrote before the records discovery that ended the contract, organized around three tests: the contract, the company, and the community.
Looking for one answer first? Read ten common questions about Flock, ALPRs, contracts, and outside access.
The Flock contract ended. Council adopted the SAFE policy.
Council voted unanimously on August 25, 2026, to decline the proposed renewal and end the Flock Safety agreement. On September 22 the City reported the contract canceled, the system deactivated, and all 28 City-contract cameras removed.
Council unanimously adopted the SAFE technology policy on October 27, 2026. It requires a public Council vote before the City buys, renews, or expands a high-risk system.
Records and sources
The records behind this work
These articles identify the contracts, policies, audit material, public records, Council documents, and vendor terms behind the analysis. I will add the underlying files where they can be published and identify the version of each contract document being reviewed.