Bell County Sheriff | License plate readers
Volunteers have mapped 310 plate readers in Bell County. The Commissioners Court's record mentions plate readers twice, both in the consent block, five weeks apart at the end of 2023, and records no outcome for either.
At a glance
- First appearance in the county record
- 13 November 2023, consent item 3.e: an amended resolution authorizing submission of a grant application for License Plate Readers to the Office of the Governor, designating the County Judge as the authorized official [1]
- Second appearance
- 11 December 2023, consent item 3.d: a resolution for a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation to deploy trailer-mounted license plate readers within the department's maintained highway right of way in Bell County [2]
- Whether either passed
- Not known. Bell County published minutes for nearly every Commissioners Court meeting until 16 December 2019 and, apart from two special sessions, none since, so neither item has a recorded outcome [1] [2]
- How many readers the county operates
- Not stated in any Bell County Commissioners Court agenda or set of minutes we read [1] [2] [3]
- A usage policy
- None has been presented to the Commissioners Court in the agendas and minutes the county publishes, from January 2011 to September 2026 [3]
- Mapped by volunteers
- 310 plate readers of the 317 surveillance devices contributors have mapped in Bell County, most of them recorded as Flock Safety cameras. None of them appears in the county's record [3]
How it happened
- Procurement
A grant application, on the consent agenda
The Court's consent block carries an amended resolution authorizing submission of a License Plate Readers grant application to the Office of the Governor. The word "amended" is the only sign of an earlier resolution, and that earlier one does not appear in the county's published agendas or minutes. [1]
- Procurement
Room in the state highway right of way
Five weeks later the consent block carries a resolution for a multiple use agreement with the state highway department, to deploy trailer-mounted plate readers within its maintained right of way in Bell County. [2]
There are more plate readers standing in Bell County than in most Texas counties, and the county government’s own record barely mentions them.
What the county record contains
Two items, both in the consent block, five weeks apart. On 13 November 2023 the Court’s consent agenda listed an amended resolution authorizing submission of a grant application for license plate readers to the Office of the Governor, naming the County Judge as the authorized official. On 11 December 2023 it listed a resolution for a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation, to deploy trailer-mounted plate readers within the state highway right of way in Bell County.
That is the whole of it. The words “license plate”, “plate reader”, “ALPR” and “LPR” appear nowhere else in the 1,020 agendas and minutes Bell County has published since January 2011.
Neither item has a recorded outcome. The county published minutes for nearly every Commissioners Court meeting until 16 December 2019 and, apart from two special sessions, none since. So we can say these two resolutions were noticed for a vote, and we cannot say what the vote was.
What stands in the county
Volunteers mapping surveillance hardware have recorded 317 devices in Bell County, and 310 of them are plate readers. Most are logged as Flock Safety cameras, on poles along the roads through Killeen, Temple, Belton, Salado and the smaller towns beside Interstate 35. The community map shows where contributors have put them.
None of those readers appears in the Commissioners Court’s record, which is what you would expect: in Texas a city police department buys its own, and its council approves it. The Atlas of Surveillance attributes readers in this county to the Killeen, Temple, Belton, Nolanville, Salado, Holland and Morgan’s Point Resort police departments. We have not swept those councils’ records, and this page makes no claim about what any of them approved.
What a resident can ask for
The gap between 310 readers on the ground and two consent items in the county record is the reason the first request on this county’s list asks the County Clerk for the minutes of every Commissioners Court meeting since January 2020, and the second asks the Sheriff’s Office how many readers it operates, where they are, how long it keeps the reads and who else can search them.
What we do not know
- Whether the Court approved either 2023 resolution, and what the grant application asked for.
- What the amended resolution of November 2023 was amending.
- Whether the grant was awarded, and how many readers it bought.
- Where any county reader stands, how long reads are kept, and which agencies can search them.
- Which agencies own the 310 readers volunteers have mapped in Bell County.
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Bell County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Bell County →Protect yourself
Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.
Surveillance Self-Defense →Sources
- 1. Bell County Commissioners Court, agenda, 13 November 2023, consent item 3.e · Meeting record · · accessed
- 2. Bell County Commissioners Court, agenda, 11 December 2023, consent item 3.d · Meeting record · · accessed
- 3.
Get the digest
A regular digest of what changed in the world of surveillance: the counties we published, the devices that appeared on the map, and the public meetings where these decisions get made. We send it when there is enough to report.
One click to unsubscribe. What we do with your address is on the newsletter page.