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ORWELL INDEX

Who runs license plate readers in Cameron County?

On the map

0
Verified by us
109
Community-reported

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including community reporting via the DeFlock project. Tiles by OpenFreeMap.

What we do not know

Cameron County Sheriff and Cameron County Park Rangers

  • How many plate readers does Cameron County operate, and where are they?
  • How long is a plate read kept, and does anyone audit who searched it?
  • Which agencies can search reads taken by the cameras Cameron County bought for the South Texas drug task force, and where are those cameras?
  • Does the Park Ranger Division have any policy for the readers at the beach?
  • Which vendor supplied the 2020 and 2021 task force readers? Both items cite the same state contract and name nobody.

What license plate readers are

An automated license plate reader photographs every passing vehicle and records the plate, the time and the place. It does not watch suspects. It logs everyone, and the record is usually kept on a vendor’s servers.

How they work, why agencies buy them, and every county we have documented →

What you can do

Civic action

Show up

This technology is bought and renewed by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Cameron County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Cameron County →

Personal protection

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 ↗