Tribune News Service — The CEO for Flock cameras has pushed back on recent reporting, including a Houston Chronicle investigation, about the surveillance technology used by Houston police, saying it’s up to local law enforcement to decide how they use it.
Houston police have increasingly relied on the license plate recognition cameras to track tens of thousands of vehicles, often without justifying why they are doing so.
The majority of CEO Garrett Langley’s letter was aimed at reports about Flock cameras’ use in immigration- and abortion-related searches. But Langley did say the company would soon provide local law enforcement with an updated search function that would give officers a drop-down menu of reasons.
“Agencies should prescribe, in their LPR policies, how users should populate that search field,” he wrote.
Holly Beilin, director of communications for the company, said, even without the drop-down menu, officers can’t search the system without providing some reason for the search.
A Chronicle investigation found Houston police are using the cameras more than ever, logging tens of thousands of searches just last year and justifying their work less and less.
In rare cases, Houston police have run searches specifying “immigration” or listing a federal agency such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection as the purpose of the search. It’s not clear exactly what those searches are.
And in the letter, Flock disputed another report from a Texas media organization alleging that an officer used the camera system to search for a woman who had an abortion.
Langley’s letter emphasizes the role local law enforcement plays in deciding how to use the technology and what policies to enact surrounding it. His employees have appeared before city councils and spent countless time reviewing ideas with agencies, he wrote.
But Houston police, despite assurances the technology would only be used for “legitimate law enforcement” purposes, are failing to document their purposes. While police are capable of listing reasons for searches, in most cases they either list nothing at all or provide a vague or meaningless explanation.
It’s not clear how Houston police leave the section blank, given company assurances that they need a reason to conduct a search.
© 2025 the Houston Chronicle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Flock CEO Responds to Scrutiny of Houston Police's Surveillance Tech Use
In response to reporting that the police department hasn't been documenting its reasons for searching for vehicles, the company's CEO said it's up to the agencies how they use Flock's technology — however, it's still working to create a new method of disclosure.
Image courtesy of Flock Safety.
