Investigations

Kyle suspended Flock license plate readers until May 2027 referendum

The vote followed open records in Pflugerville that showed 459 outside agencies ran about 1.6 million searches tied to the suburb’s cameras.

In Kyle, Texas, the City Council voted 4 to 3 to cover and suspend the city’s Flock license plate readers until voters weigh the technology in a nonbinding May 2027 referendum. More Perfect Union reported from Central Texas as backlash spread over how Flock Safety shares automatic license plate data.

The turning point for the region was Pflugerville, an Austin suburb that leased 28 Flock cameras in 2022 and told residents roughly 80 Texas agencies could search local feeds. Resident Sam Aly, a libertarian who ran for council against Jonathan Coffman, filed a Texas Public Information Act request and reviewed audit logs from mid-February through mid-August.

According to CBS Austin’s review of the records Aly obtained, outside agencies logged about 1.6 million searches that involved Pflugerville’s network while Pflugerville police ran roughly 5,000 in the same window. Departments in Ohio and Oklahoma also appeared in the data. Coffman said the city had been told nationwide sharing was off.

By noon the day after council members saw the analysis, crews began bagging Pflugerville’s cameras. The council voted in late August to end the Flock contract. Flock blamed a user setting and a bug that briefly misclassified out-of-state agencies as Texas partners. Coffman told the crew the city was duped.

Kyle, a city of fewer than 70,000 people about 40 miles south, operates 36 license plate readers and 12 live-view cameras under contracts that police credit with cutting car theft. Austin, with nearly a million more residents, had a similar camera count before it ended its Flock deal in 2025.

At a September meeting, Council Member Claudia Zapata failed to find a second for a budget amendment that would have canceled two Flock contracts worth about $381,000 a year. The council kept funding the system and agreed to draft ballot language for 2027. Residents packed later meetings to demand removal.

On Oct. 5, Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale and Council Member Melisa Medina moved to halt the readers while leaving live-view units alone. KUT reported that the suspension blocks new plate data until after the May vote, which will not by itself decide the contracts. Harris, Tobias, and McKinney voted no.

Police Chief Jeff Barnett told council members the department treats Flock as one tool among many. Pflugerville’s breach pushed nearly a dozen other Texas cities to end or reconsider deals, and more than 270 U.S. departments dropped automated plate readers in the past year. Governor Greg Abbott paused state grants that had helped install 14,000 Flock units statewide.

Source video: This Texas Town Has 68,000 People. Its Flock Cameras Were Accessed 1.6 Million Times.