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Carrollton renewed a nearly $1.2 million contract for 82 Flock Safety cameras as a group of residents continues to press city leaders for greater oversight and transparency over the police surveillance system.
The City Council voted 6-1 Sept. 15 to approve the three-year agreement, with Council member Richard Fleming opposed.
Before this vote, the city’s Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) camera network was funded under four separate contracts with Flock. Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to stop funding additional Flock cameras due to increasing scrutiny and public backlash over their use. Some nearby cities, like Plano, canceled their contracts as a result, while others like Carrollton will now foot the entire bill. During the Sept. 15 meeting, the city transitioned all cameras in its network to a single $1.2 million agreement paid for by its general fund.
After filing over 50 open records requests with the city, one group’s concerns only grew greater. Hannah Foust, an area native, founded the DeFlock Carrollton group with some of her friends after they began spotting cameras in their neighborhood.
For Foust, one of the most disappointing revelations in her work opposing the cameras has been the lack of clear communication from city officials.
Foust said that when asking exactly how many Flock cameras were operating within the city, she would often receive a variety of answers.
“Carrollton city officials could not give an accurate number of how many cameras existed in the city,” Foust said. “We heard from some news reports, Mayor Babick say between 50 and 60. We heard in the New York Times that it was 67. The Flock transparency portal was published, reiterating 67. I had been told by a police department representative that it was around 90. All throughout the summer we were getting these different numbers. From the records request, we could see that there were many different contracts and amendments. I, as a resident, was confused by them, but I never got to a tally of 82.”
Carrollton Police administrators gave an overview on the city’s Flock services on Tuesday. During the council meeting, they explained that there are actually 67 ALPRs plus 15 pan-tilt-zoom Flock devices, for 82 total Flock devices. Police officials said Flock helped police better monitor and respond to crime in the face of staffing shortages.
“We face numerous challenges, not just evolving crime, staffing was a concern,” Chief Roberto Arredondo said. “Like all police departments in the country, we were struggling to hire and retain officers. There were high expectations, no matter our staffing shortages, and there was an increasing demand due to growth. We turned to technology as a force multiplier.”
Law enforcement said that there were many misconceptions surrounding the use of these cameras. Among those, police said the devices track vehicles, not people. Carrollton ALPRs capture around a million license plates per month, but detectives make around 2,000 manual searches. Police officials said that because of technological advances, the department has been able to reduce the crime rate by 65% over 20 years. Arredondo credited Flock with reducing car theft by as much as 30%.
“Resources are constrained and technology helps us and we get so much information,” Police Commander Zach White said.
Members of DeFlock Carrollton have become a recurring presence at council meetings. Despite little public action or discussion on the issue until now, attendees have signed up for the public comments portion of the meeting to speak both against and for ALPRs, week after week since June. The Sept. 15 meeting, where Flock was on the table, garnered one of the biggest responses yet.
Despite this, Foust said the council has continuously failed to address or acknowledge the public’s concerns. Ultimately, she hopes a public hearing or town hall will be held on the issue.
“At the previous council meeting, Mayor Babick did come to us after the meeting and say that not to worry and that Flock would be on the agenda,” Foust said. “We understood that to mean that we would be having a town hall and an opportunity to ask questions. Instead, City Council chose to put it on the consent agenda.”
Appearing on the consent agenda means that the item will be voted on in a block with other items not requiring deliberation. The issue of renewal was listed in the consent agenda in the posted documentation for that meeting, though on the day of, police instead presented an overview of the issue and council voted on the item separately.
Though Mayor Steve Babick did not respond to a request for comment directly, he communicated through the city’s marketing staff that the item followed standard protocol and course of action as required by the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Foust also claims that while the last contract for renewal was not publicly passed as a resolution by council until Jan. 9, 2024, a master agreement and order form that she received through a records request was already signed by an assistant city manager two weeks earlier.
“As a resident, I found that extremely disheartening,” she said. “A lot of the feedback leading up to this week is, ‘Well, I'm not sure if I want to speak at city council because they're not going to change their minds’ and then we saw that play out. I think that had you asked me a year ago, I would have said, we got to show up, and maybe they will change their minds. Having seen that they're willing to sign a contract before putting it on the consent agenda, it does make me question how our city council is operating, and if it's really considering the voices of the citizens.”
When asked for comment, city staff clarified the documents reflect two different steps in the city’s acquisition and procurement process. The Dec. 27 signatures were intended to be contingent upon council review, authorization and adoption, they told the Branch Herald.
Among the community's biggest concerns are privacy and public safety.
License plate readers and similar technologies do not always peg the right perpetrator. There have been multiple instances of police arresting or accusing individuals erroneously flagged by Flock. Foust pointed to Roseville, California, where a police analysis found that 71% of 1,427 alerts involving stolen or felony-linked vehicles contained misread license plates. Roseville police said none of those erroneous alerts resulted in a stop or arrest because officers were required to independently verify them.
“We have not heard any confirmation from Carrollton that they've done any kind of analysis on the error rate in Carrollton,” Foust said. “I don't think Carrollton has done its due diligence as far as analyzing their own data and results to see what the error rate could be, and they're not operating with that in mind.”
The city confirmed that it does not track an error rate for its ALPR technology or software. Instead, policy addresses this by requiring officers to human-verify Flock alerts and take additional steps before acting on the information. An automated Flock alert is treated as an investigative lead rather than confirmation that a vehicle or person is involved in criminal activity.
At other departments across the country, officers have over-relied on the devices as evidence. Lindseay Isaacs is suing the Florida Highway Patrol after she was arrested and held 13 days after a Flock camera pinged her vehicle near a fatal hit-and-run that she did not commit.
Foust is concerned that overreliance on artificial intelligence may reduce the effectiveness of local law enforcement.
“Instead of putting that money towards officers who would be essentially on the beat, they are investing in technology as a way to multiply the effectiveness of their police force,” Foust said. “When you're relying on technology to fill that gap, I think that you are opening yourself up to some level of complacency because there is too much trust in the technology.”
Multiple officers throughout the country have also been arrested and fired after using Flock’s system to stalk and track former romantic partners, spouses and personal acquaintances. Flock allows officers to see when and where a car has driven by one of their cameras using only a license plate number.
The Carrollton Police Department says it has several measures in place to prevent misuse.
“Access to the Flock system is restricted to authorized personnel and searches are logged and subject to audit,” Marketing Manager Susan Prosoco said. “Searches must have a legitimate law-enforcement purpose and be tied to a current investigation. Flock data is automatically deleted after 30 days unless it is formally retained as part of an active criminal investigation.”
Despite the renewal of the contract, Foust believes there is still more work to be done. She has seen residents who have previously never been to a city council meeting become politically active and engaged for the first time.
“We had a huge turnout, and it was a wide variety of people who I think largely came to the same conclusion for different reasons,” Foust said. “It's been a labor of love, but I mean, for something that impacts every single resident, worker and visitor to Carrollton, I think it's worth raising.”
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