Skip to content
ORWELL INDEX
Active Updated

Brazoria County Sheriff | The Sheriff's plate readers

Brazoria County put four Flock Safety plate reader cameras on state highways under an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation. The cameras are numbered 06 to 09, and the county record does not say what 01 to 05 are.

At a glance

First in the county record
26 October 2021: a Data Sharing Memorandum of Understanding between Flock Group Inc. and Brazoria County for the benefit of the Sheriff's Office, item 7.O.1 on the Commissioners Court's agenda [1]
Cameras on state highway right of way
Four, numbered 06 to 09. Two on State Highway 288, one on FM 2004, one on TX-35, each on a new Flock pole, in permit drawings the Sheriff's Office filed with the Texas Department of Transportation [4] [5]
How the Court approved it
Twice, inside the consent block. Item H.18 on 13 February 2024 and Resolution Order H.4 on 26 March 2024, each passed in a single motion with the rest of the block [3] [4] [7]
What the cameras cost
Not stated in any county record we read. No Flock contract, quote, invoice or renewal appears anywhere in the Commissioners Court's record for this county [7]
How long a read is kept
Not stated in any county record we read. The agreements the Court approved in August 2026 set retention for the state and regional databases the reads flow into, not for the county's own cameras [7]
A usage policy
None has been presented to the Commissioners Court in the record we read [7]
Mapped by volunteers
229 plate readers of the 232 surveillance devices contributors have mapped in Brazoria County. Flock Safety is the manufacturer recorded on 227 of the readers, and on a gunshot detector that is the only device of its kind on the map. The county's own record accounts for four readers [8] [9]

How it happened

  1. Decision

    A constable asks first

    Item 7.T.1 on the Commissioners Court's agenda, under Constable Precinct 2, reads "Automated License Plate Reader Agreement". The archive publishes no minutes for that meeting, so what the Court did with it is not established. [2]

  2. Decision

    Flock arrives as a data sharing agreement

    Item 7.O.1, under the Sheriff's Office, is a Data Sharing Memorandum of Understanding between Flock Group Inc. and Brazoria County for the benefit of the Sheriff's Office. No document was filed with the agenda in the archive, and no minutes for the meeting are published, so the terms and the outcome are not established. [1]

  3. Procurement

    Hardware and software, on two roads at once

    The Court's last agenda of 2022 carries three Flock items: 6.H.1, Flock Hardware and Software for the Sheriff's Office on TxDOT right of ways; 6.R.8, the same for county road right of ways; and 6.F.1, a Flock Group Memorandum of Understanding under Constable Precinct 3. The agreement the county signed with the state a year later recites that the county's governing body entered Resolution 6.H.1 in December 2022 authorizing its participation. [6] [4]

  4. Decision

    The agreement, on consent

    Item H.18, "Multiple Use Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation for Camera Placement", passed inside the consent block. Moved by Commissioner Stacy L. Adams, seconded by Commissioner Donald "Dude" Payne. [3] [7]

  5. Decision

    The resolution, also on consent

    Resolution Order H.4 authorizes a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation "authorizing Flock Safety to install Automated License Plate Readers along TxDOT rights-of-way". Item H.4 inside the consent block, moved by Commissioner Ryan Cade, seconded by Commissioner David R. Linder. [4] [7]

Four cameras, numbered 06 to 09

On 26 March 2024 the Brazoria County Commissioners Court passed a resolution with one operative sentence: the county authorizes a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation “authorizing Flock Safety to install Automated License Plate Readers along TxDOT rights-of-way”.[4]

The agreement behind it is a standard TxDOT form, and the interesting part is the attachment. The permit drawings are headed “AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE READING (ALPR) CAMERAS PERMIT SUBMITTED BY BRAZORIA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE”, and the camera location table lists four cameras: number 06 southbound on State Highway 288, number 07 northbound on the same highway, number 08 southbound on FM 2004, and number 09 eastbound on TX-35. Each sits on a new Flock pole.[5]

The numbering starts at six. Nothing in the county’s record accounts for cameras 01 to 05.

The county had been at this for two and a half years

The Court’s agenda for 26 October 2021 carries an item under the Sheriff’s Office: a data sharing memorandum of understanding between Flock Group Inc. and Brazoria County, for the benefit of the Sheriff’s Office.[1] Six months earlier, Constable Precinct 2 brought the Court an item titled “Automated License Plate Reader Agreement”.[2]

Then, on 13 December 2022, the Court’s last agenda of the year carried three Flock items at once: hardware and software for the Sheriff’s Office on state highway right of way, the same for county road right of way, and a Flock Group memorandum under Constable Precinct 3.[6] The agreement the county later signed with the state recites that authorization, naming the resolution by its item number.[4]

The archive publishes no minutes for any of those meetings, so what the Court decided on those items is not established here. What it was asked to decide is.

No price, anywhere

Across every agenda from January 2018, every set of minutes from August 2023, and the 6,787 items the Court’s portal records for that period, there is no Flock Safety contract, no quote, no invoice and no renewal.[7] The items name hardware and software. The dollar figure is not in the county’s record.

Nor is a retention period, a usage policy or a search audit. The Court has never been shown one.

What stands in the county

Contributors have mapped 229 plate readers in Brazoria County, and Flock Safety is the manufacturer recorded on 227 of them.[8] The county’s own record accounts for four. The rest belong mostly to the cities: the EFF Atlas records the police departments of Alvin, Angleton, Iowa Colony, Lake Jackson and Manvel, and the Alvin Independent School District police, as Flock Safety operators.[9] None of those councils has been researched for this project and this page makes no claim about what any of them approved. The community map shows where contributors have put them.

What a resident can ask for

The Sheriff’s Office holds the answers the Commissioners Court’s record does not: how many readers the county runs, where they stand, how long a read is kept, who may search it and whether searches are logged. Where the reads go has the agreements that send them out of the county.

On the map

The community has mapped 229 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 Brazoria County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Brazoria 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.
    Brazoria County Commissioners Court, agenda, 26 October 2021, item 7.O.1 · Meeting record · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Brazoria County Commissioners Court, agenda, 13 April 2021, item 7.T.1 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Brazoria County Commissioners Court, minutes, 13 February 2024, consent item H.18 · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Resolution Order H.4 and the executed TxDOT Multiple Use Agreement, 26 March 2024 · Meeting record · · accessed
  5. 5.
    TxDOT Multiple Use Agreement with camera location drawings, filed with item H.18, 13 February 2024 · Meeting record · · accessed
  6. 6.
    Brazoria County Commissioners Court, agenda, 13 December 2022, items 6.F.1, 6.H.1 and 6.R.8 · Meeting record · · accessed
  7. 7.
    Brazoria County Commissioners Court, its published agendas from January 2018 and its minutes from August 2023 to September 2026, and the 6,787 items its portal records for that period · Dataset · accessed
  8. 8.
    OpenStreetMap contributors, surveillance devices mapped in Brazoria County · Dataset · accessed
  9. 9.
    EFF Atlas of Surveillance, Brazoria County entries · Dataset · 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.