Joining the ranks of the Rio Grande Valley’s (RGV) ubiquitous car washes are the ever-growing numbers of Automated License Plate Recognition cameras, or ALPRs. The solar-powered and A.I. guided street cameras’ dominant manufacturer and operator is Flock Safety, a company that specializes in surveillance technology.
The origins of Flock Safety trace back to 2017, when Garrett Langley and two of his co-founders built makeshift cameras to address local thefts in their neighborhood. While their initial business model was pitched mainly to local Homeowners Associations to prevent burglaries and petty crimes, Flock instead quickly began working directly with Police Departments of all levels. The inherent purpose of Flock cameras differs from that of CCTV or traffic cameras, where data is temporarily used for traffic control or security. Instead, Flock collects, stores, and catalogs the data of millions of Americans in a widely accessed and searchable database that holds information for extended periods of time.
Since 2020, the private A.I. surveillance company has found its niche in providing law enforcement with contracts to install and operate ALPR cameras nationwide. Shortly after its founding, Flock’s business model attracted powerful initial investors. They included venture capitalist billionaire Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, a large-scale data integration and A.I. software company and close collaborator of the Trump Administration. Despite its relatively recent inception, Flock Safety has quickly become a household name, operating more than 140,000 ALPR cameras in 7,000 communities across the United States. According to data available on DeFlock, an estimated 382 active Flock cameras operate in the RGV.
American citizens are now having to come to terms with a reality in the near future where a national surveillance web is able to monitor their movements so effectively that it can discern their daily habits, jobs, religious and political affiliations while building a searchable profile in a government-accessed database. Consequently, debate over Flock’s infringement on Americans’ Fourth Amendment protections from unreasonable searches has heated up following its aggressive growth across the country.
In an ironic twist, co-founder Garrett Langley has recently blocked out his home on Google Maps in an effort to preserve his personal privacy.
Flock Swaying Texas Governor Race
On August 25, Democratic candidate for Governor Gina Hinojosa launched a digital ad campaign directly targeting Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s record of supporting Flock Safety in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
The ad states,
“Welcome to Texas, y’all, where we celebrate freedom from big government. So, relax. There’s only 10,000 Flock cameras reading your plate, logging where you sleep and pray, no warrant needed in Greg Abbott’s Texas … Smile!”
Only days after this digital ad campaign was aired in towns across Texas, Greg Abbott took an unexpected about-face and paused state agency funding for new Flock cameras that began on August 27, 2026.
Critics of Abbott cite increased pressure from across the state and the upcoming midterm elections for the sudden shift, but claim that this may only be a temporary pause rather than a complete policy shift for the Republican Governor.
Collateral Damage & Collaboration with ICE
Flock cameras utilize artificial intelligence to identify vehicles based on their color, make, model, bumper stickers, and dents. This creates a so-called “vehicle fingerprint” that is unique to every vehicle cataloged, allowing Flock to build a database of millions of cars.
Despite claiming to focus solely on vehicles, Flock has been found to catalog individual people in its database.
The efficacy of Flock Safety comes into question when the software the system is built on is inherently flawed. Artificial intelligence has already incorrectly identified individuals, leading to their wrongful detainment, as was the case for 23-year-old Lindsey Isaacs.
Isaacs was arrested in April 2026 after being accused by Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) of driving a vehicle involved in a fatal October 2025 crash that killed 3 people.
Despite her innocence, Isaacs spent 13 days in maximum security jail, including 86 hours in solitary confinement. She is now suing FHP for her ordeal.
Cases of corrupt law enforcement officials using Flock Safety to spy, stalk or harass individuals are well-documented and support claims of its potential for misuse. The Washington Post conducted a nationwide investigation that uncovered 69 known cases of police employees across various U.S. departments accused, charged, or convicted of misusing Flock systems for personal tracking.
Disturbingly, ICE has been reported to use the searchable database that Flock creates in order to find and deport immigrants, despite the fact that ICE has no formal contract with Flock Safety. Federal Agencies such as Homeland Security can still force their way into accessing a catalog of data housing the details of millions of Americans without a warrant or any formal agreement. This workaround is done mostly through direct agreements with local law enforcement. According to the Immigration Law Council in Hidalgo and Cameron Counties, these agreements take the form of the Warrant Service Officer Model (WSO), which “Authorizes local law enforcement officers to serve and execute ICE administrative warrants within jails.”
The vulnerability of such sensitive information to the agendas of third-party entities does little to calm fears of mass surveillance in communities across the country, let alone those in the borderlands. Local organizations such as the Texas Civil Rights Project have been taking an active approach in combating misinformation surrounding Flock, while the ACLU has been sounding the alarm on the dangers Flock poses to Americans’ civil liberties. Fighting back and pressuring county governments to cancel their Flock contracts has worked even in some of the most conservative counties and gives hope that other cities can follow in their footsteps.
