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Dallas County Sheriff | Flock Safety license plate readers

A $133,000 purchase approved without a bid, paid for by an auto theft grant Dallas County has held since 1993, for an office that was already running plate readers.

At a glance

The decision
Court Order 2025-1179, 21 October 2025. Moved by Commissioner Dr. Elba Garcia, seconded by Commissioner Andrew Sommerman, carried 5-0 with none opposed and none absent [2] [3]
The cost
$133,000 [1] [2]
The money
A Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority grant. Dallas County has received this grant, under its earlier name as well, since 1993, and the Sheriff has run it since 1999 [1] [4]
How many, and where
Not stated in the court order or the briefing. The quote attached to the briefing is not legible in the copy the county's portal serves [1]
How long the reads are kept
Not stated in any document the Commissioners Court published [1]
What the Sheriff told the Court it does
"LPR technology assists law enforcement in identifying stolen vehicles, locating wanted individuals, and supporting criminal investigations" [1]

How it happened

  1. Context

    The grant arrives

    Dallas County becomes the recipient of a Texas Automobile Burglary and Theft Prevention Authority grant to combat auto theft, administered by the District Attorney's Office. The authority is later renamed the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority. [4]

  2. Decision

    The Sheriff takes the grant

    At the District Attorney's request, the Sheriff's Department assumes operational control of the auto theft grant. [4]

  3. Decision

    A year of grant money, and plate readers already running

    The Court takes up acceptance of about $1,208,574 in grant funds with a county cash match of $326,467 for the year to 31 August 2025. The task force's own budget narrative says its investigators use automatic license plate readers, and budgets $7,000 for renewals of maintenance and warranties on all of its plate reader units. [4]

  4. Decision

    Court Order 2025-1179

    The Commissioners Court approves the purchase of Flock Safety license plate readers and portable LPR cameras for the Sheriff's Office, $133,000, from the same grant. The item comes to the Court as a budget item rather than as a bid or a request for proposals, and carries 5-0. [1] [2] [3]

Dallas County bought its Sheriff’s Office a set of Flock Safety plate readers on 21 October 2025, for $133,000, and the money did not come from the county.

It came from the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, a state body that funds auto theft work. Dallas County has held that grant since 1993. For the first six years the District Attorney’s Office ran it, as the Dallas County Commercial Auto Theft Task Force. On 11 February 1999, at the District Attorney’s request, the Sheriff’s Department took operational control, and it has held it since.

The readers were not new

The year before the Flock purchase, the Court accepted about $1.2 million of the same grant for the year to 31 August 2025, with a county match of about $326,000. The budget narrative attached to that acceptance describes what the task force’s investigators do, and plate readers are in the list: a deputy “will conduct bait & covert operations, use automatic license plate readers, conduct salvage yard/business inspections”. Further down, the program description says “The Task Force will use License Plate Readers to target areas with high incidents of auto theft crime”.

The budget also carries a line for “LPR Warranty Renewals”, $7,000, to cover renewals of maintenance and warranties on all of the task force’s plate reader units. It does not say how many units that is.

So the October 2025 purchase is a layer on a program, not the start of one. How deep the earlier layers go is not in the record the Commissioners Court published.

What the Court was told, and what it was not

The briefing is short and it is candid about purpose. The Sheriff’s Office asked for the readers “to enhance public safety, improve investigative capabilities, and strengthen patrol operations”. The technology “assists law enforcement in identifying stolen vehicles, locating wanted individuals, and supporting criminal investigations”. Fixed and portable units together give “flexibility in responding to emerging crime trends and coverage in high-traffic or high-risk areas”. Under operational impact, the purchase “will expand the Sheriff’s Office’s ability to monitor and deter criminal activity throughout the county”.

What the briefing does not say is how many cameras, where they go, how long a plate read is kept, or who else can search the collection. A quote is attached that appears to answer some of that, and in the copy the county’s portal serves its text cannot be read.

How it reached the Court

Not as a bid. The 21 October 2025 meeting has a bids block and a request-for-proposals block, each with its own vote, and this item is in neither. It arrives as item three under court orders, in the budget subheading, with Budget as the originating department, because the purchase is grant spending rather than a county procurement.

Commissioner Dr. Elba Garcia moved it. Commissioner Andrew Sommerman seconded. It carried 5-0, with County Judge Clay Jenkins and Commissioners Dr. Theresa Daniel, John Wiley Price, Dr. Elba Garcia and Andrew Sommerman all in favor. Nobody opposed, nobody abstained, nobody was absent.

Eight months later the same Court approved a five-year contract that puts a plate reader license on each of the Sheriff’s 137 in-car cameras. That one is a separate record.

What a resident can do about it

The questions above are all answerable, and most of them are answerable by asking. Dallas County takes public information requests through its Public Records Center, and the grant, the contract and any use policy are county records. The Commissioners Court hears speakers on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 9:00 AM, and registration closes at 4 p.m. the Monday before.

On the map

The community has mapped 1686 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 Dallas County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Dallas 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.
    Dallas County Commissioners Court, Briefing / Court Order, 21 October 2025, "Approval of Purchase of Flock Safety License Plate Readers and Portable License Plate Readers (LPR) Cameras for the Dallas County Sheriff's Office" · Primary document · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Dallas County Commissioners Court, Motion Sheets (Approved Court Orders), 21 October 2025, carrying Court Order 2025-1179 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Dallas County Commissioners Court, Minutes, 21 October 2025 · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Dallas County Commissioners Court, Briefing / Court Order, 20 August 2024, "FY2025 - Sheriff Office - Dallas County North Texas Auto Theft Task Force Submission of Texas Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority (MVCPA) Acceptance of $1,208,574 in Grant Funds" · Primary document · · accessed

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