Skip to content
ORWELL INDEX
Active Updated

Bexar County Sheriff | Vigilant LEARN plate reader data

In 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 the Commissioners Court's consent agenda carried a renewal of the Sheriff's Office's subscription to Vigilant Solutions' LEARN platform, without competitive bidding. The renewals of November 2023 and January 2025 passed with the consent agenda.

At a glance

What the county buys
An annual subscription to LEARN, which the agendas call the Law Enforcement Archival & Reporting Network and the LEARN Investigative Data Platform [1] [4] [5]
Price
$54,050 on the January 2020 agenda, and $63,205 on the January 2025 agenda [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
How it is bought
A discretionary exemption from competitive bidding, called sole source on the 2020, 2022 and 2023 agendas. The 2023 and 2025 items cite Texas Local Government Code section 262.024 [1] [3] [4] [5]
Latest renewal approved
7 January 2025, $63,205, passed with the consent agenda [5] [7]
Whose plate reads it holds
Not stated on any agenda item [1] [4] [5]
How long reads are kept
Not stated on any agenda item [1] [4] [5]

How it happened

  1. Procurement

    A sole source renewal on the consent agenda

    Item 30 asks the Court to renew the Sheriff's Office's annual LEARN subscription with Vigilant Solutions, $54,050, on a sole source basis. The meeting's video has no transcript, and the outcome is not confirmed. [1]

  2. Procurement

    Renewal, $56,200

    Item 18 on the consent agenda. The outcome is not confirmed. [2]

  3. Procurement

    Renewal, $58,440

    Item 20 on the consent agenda, on a sole source basis. The outcome is not confirmed. [3]

  4. Decision

    Renewal passes with the consent agenda, $60,775

    Item 22. No Commissioner pulled it, and the remaining consent items passed on one motion, moved by Commissioner Rodriguez and seconded by Commissioner Clay-Flores. [4] [6]

  5. Decision

    Renewal passes with the consent agenda, $63,205

    Item 31. No Commissioner pulled it, and the remaining consent items passed on one motion, moved by Commissioner Calvert and seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez. [5] [7]

Vigilant Solutions is a license plate reader company, and LEARN is its data platform. The Bexar County agendas name the platform and its price and say nothing about what it holds. In Harris County, the Commissioners Court record describes that Sheriff’s Office’s LEARN renewal as connecting its plate reader cameras to the Vigilant database; see Harris County.

The Bexar County Commissioners Court puts routine items on a consent agenda that passes on a single motion unless a Commissioner pulls an item for separate discussion. The LEARN subscription has come to the Court that way each time we found it.

In January 2020 item 30 asked the Court to renew the Sheriff’s Office’s annual subscription to the LEARN Investigative Data Platform for $54,050, as a sole source purchase.[1] The same renewal came back in February 2021 for $56,200 and in April 2022 for $58,440.[2][3] The outcomes of those three items are not confirmed here.

In November 2023 item 22 renewed the subscription for $60,775, citing the discretionary exemption in section 262.024 of the Texas Local Government Code.[4] At the meeting, Commissioners pulled other items and not this one, and the remaining consent agenda passed on a motion by Commissioner Rodriguez, seconded by Commissioner Clay-Flores.[6]

In January 2025 item 31 renewed it again for $63,205.[5] It was not pulled, and the remaining consent agenda passed on a motion by Commissioner Calvert, seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez.[7]

What the agendas do not say

None of the five items describes what the subscription contains, whose plate reads are in it, how long they are kept, or who else can search them. None comes with a policy. Each was bought without competitive bidding.

The Sheriff’s Office also runs Flock Safety cameras, with a published policy and a 30-day retention period. That policy is for Flock. See Flock Safety cameras.

On the map

The community has mapped 550 devices of this type in the county on OpenStreetMap. These are community reports: the vendor and operator of each point are unverified, and none is confirmed to belong to this system. See them on the map →

Street names from reverse geocoding — © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

What we do not know

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 Bexar County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Bexar 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. 1.
    Bexar County Commissioners Court, agenda, 28 January 2020, item 30 (a scan) · Meeting record · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Bexar County Commissioners Court, agenda, 23 February 2021, item 18 (a scan) · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Bexar County Commissioners Court, agenda, 5 April 2022, item 20 (a scan) · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Bexar County Commissioners Court, agenda, 28 November 2023, item 22 (a scan) · Meeting record · · accessed
  5. 5.
    Bexar County Commissioners Court, agenda, 7 January 2025, item 31 (a scan) · Meeting record · · accessed
  6. 6.
    Bexar County Commissioners Court, meeting video and transcript, 28 November 2023, consent agenda · Meeting record · · accessed
  7. 7.
    Bexar County Commissioners Court, meeting video and transcript, 7 January 2025, consent agenda · Meeting record · · accessed

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.

Subscribe to the newsletter

One click to unsubscribe. What we do with your address is on the newsletter page.