Statement Against Mass Public Surveillance

The rapid expansion of Flock Safety cameras, Axon surveillance platforms, and other automated public monitoring systems represents a profound threat to constitutional liberties and the privacy rights of ordinary Americans.

The Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution and subsequently Texas Bill of Rights Sections 9 and 10 were adopted to protect citizens from unreasonable government searches and generalized surveillance. While law enforcement agencies argue that automated license plate readers (ALPRs) merely record what is visible in public, modern surveillance networks go far beyond simple observation. These systems collect, retain, analyze, and share massive amounts of location data, allowing government agencies as well as corporate commercial entities to reconstruct an individual's movements, associations, religious activities, medical visits, political participation, and daily habits without a warrant. Such continuous tracking resembles the "dragnet" surveillance the Constitution was designed to prevent.

Multiple civil liberties organizations have warned that networked camera systems create a form of mass surveillance that can be searched retrospectively across jurisdictions, often without judicial oversight.

Beyond constitutional concerns, technology has repeatedly produced false identifications that have harmed innocent people. Business Insider documented multiple incidents in which Flock camera errors resulted in traffic stops, arrests, jailings, and even police dog attacks against people who had committed no crime. In Toledo, Ohio, Brandon Upchurch was stopped, injured by a police K-9, jailed, and charged after a Flock camera allegedly misread a "7" as a "2" on his license plate. The charges against him were later dismissed when it became clear the plate was not stolen and he was the lawful owner of the vehicle.

Reports have also documented other cases involving mistaken vehicle identification, including an individual who spent 13 days in jail after being incorrectly linked to a fatal crash and a passenger who spent nearly a month in jail after Flock's appearance-matching technology identified the wrong vehicle.

Accuracy concerns are significant. An internal review by the Roseville, California Police Department reportedly found that 71% of Flock alerts associated with stolen or felony vehicles were false positives caused by license plate misreads.

Americans should not be required to surrender their privacy simply to travel on public roads. Public safety is important, but liberty requires limits on government surveillance, independent audits for accuracy, strict warrant requirements, transparency regarding data sharing, and strong accountability when innocent people are harmed by the use of faulty technology.

We call upon the Texas Legislature to provide stronger protections for personal data and a ban on mass surveillance equipment and programs, including ALPRs.