Texas Bars State Grants From Paying for Vehicle-Tracking Cameras, in a Comptroller Order That Is Not a Blanket Ban
Comptroller Don Huffines' order stops future grants from his office from funding Flock cameras and other vehicle-identification systems - but local governments may still buy them with other money, and no Austin impact has been announced.
Texas Comptroller Don Huffines has barred future state grants administered by his office from paying for Flock cameras and other systems that identify vehicles, in an order signed last week and reported Tuesday by KXAN36 News, drawing on Texas Metro News. Huffines said the government should not track where law-abiding Texans drive without a warrant.
The order defines the prohibited systems broadly: software, sensors or algorithms used to log vehicles or turn captured images into computer-readable data. It names products or companies associated with Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions and Axon Enterprise, and it applies to future grants administered by the comptroller's office.
What the order is not matters as much. It does not announce a blanket ban on local governments buying or operating these systems with other funds, and it does not require existing equipment to be removed. Austin-specific impacts have not been announced, and the account identifies no Austin grants or equipment affected by the policy - the practical effect will depend on which grant programs and purchases meet its definition.
Two neighboring technologies remain open questions in the report: City Detect, described as operating on about 50 sanitation and bulk-waste trucks in Dallas to photograph properties and flag possible code violations - not said to be deployed in Austin - and Leonardo's SignalTrace, a roadside system that can scan wireless-device signals beyond reading license plates. Whether either falls under the comptroller's definition is not specified. At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Keith Self has introduced the PRIVACY Act, with co-sponsors Eli Crane and Andrew Clyde, to restrict federal funding for AI vehicle-tracking networks and require a judicial warrant to access them; Congress has announced no action on it.
