Galveston County Sheriff | The Sheriff's plate readers
Galveston County has been buying license plate readers since 2007, and the buyer is an auto theft task force that has been in the Commissioners Court's record since 1995. Ten Flock Safety cameras run under two separate subscriptions, split by whether they stand on state highway right of way.
At a glance
- First in the county record
- 1 August 2007: Bid No. B071047, Automatic License Plate Recognition System, awarded to Portable Computer Systems, Inc. for $50,353.00 on the Auto Crimes Task Force's recommendation [1]
- Who buys them
- The Galveston County Auto Crimes Task Force, a unit of the Sheriff's Office funded by the state Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority and joined by interlocal agreement to the City of Galveston, the City of La Marque, League City and Brazoria County [2]
- Flock Safety cameras under contract
- Ten. Two subscriptions of five Flock Safety Falcon cameras each, $15,000 a year apiece, one for cameras on Texas Department of Transportation right of way and one for the rest [5] [6]
- Other readers in the record
- An annual plate recognition software subscription covering two cameras at $560 each, bought from Vigilant Solutions in 2024 and from its successor Motorola Solutions since, and two plate reader trailers bought in June 2024 through a cooperative agreement in place of bidding [7] [8]
- How the county got its first Flock access
- 27 July 2020, at no cost: a five-year data sharing memorandum of understanding with Flock Group giving the Sheriff's Office access to recordings it did not own, for investigative purposes. The first paid contract came two and a half years later [3]
- Cameras on state highway right of way
- 21 August 2023: the Court resolved unanimously to enter a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation permitting plate reader cameras on state right of way, as item 32 inside a consent block of 67 [4] [9]
- How long reads are kept
- Not stated in any county record we read. The Flock agreements say Flock deletes footage on a rolling thirty day basis and that the agency is responsible for archiving anything it wants to keep [3]
- A usage policy
- None has been presented to the Commissioners Court in the record we read [10]
How it happened
- Procurement
A competitive bid, on the task force's recommendation
The Court awarded Bid No. B071047 for an Automatic License Plate Recognition System to Portable Computer Systems, Inc. The Purchasing Agent's letter records that the bid was opened on 5 June 2007, that two bids were received, and that the most responsive was $50,353.00. The award carried on a motion by Commissioner Lamb, seconded by the County Judge. [1]
- Decision
Free access first
The Court authorized a no cost data sharing memorandum of understanding with Flock Group, running five years, letting the Sheriff's Office view and search recordings stored for no longer than thirty days. The agreement states that no financial commitment is required and that data the agency does not own may be accessed for investigative purposes. [3]
- Decision
Onto the state plate reader program
The Court resolved that the Auto Crimes Task Force meet the Texas Department of Public Safety's requirements for accessing the license plate reader program and hold its own agency identifier, and that it "will be empowered to enforce all laws, including municipal ordinances, county ordinances, state laws, federal laws and policies". [2]
- Procurement
The first paid cameras
The County Judge signed a Flock Group order form for five Falcon cameras, $2,500 each a year with a $750 implementation fee apiece, $16,250 in the first year. [4]
- Decision
Onto the state's roads, on consent
Item 32, a resolution authorizing a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation to permit plate reader cameras on state right of way, passed inside a consent block running from item 1 to item 67. The motion named four exceptions and item 32 was not among them. Passed 5-0. [9] [4]
- Procurement
Two trailers, without a bid
Consent item 26 authorized the use of a cooperative purchasing agreement in lieu of competitive bidding to buy two plate reader trailers with extended warranty for the Sheriff's Office Auto Crimes Division. [8]
- Procurement
The subscriptions split in two
Consent items 34 and 35 renewed a Vigilant Solutions plate recognition software subscription covering two cameras and the Flock Safety subscription covering cameras on state right of way. A fortnight later, on 12 November, consent item 33 renewed the second Flock subscription for the cameras that are not on state right of way. Each Flock contract is $15,000 a year for five cameras. [5] [6] [7]
Galveston County bought its first license plate reader in 2007, which makes it one of the earliest county programs in Texas. The purchase went through a competitive bid, it cost $50,353, and the recommendation to award it came from the Auto Crimes Task Force.
The buyer is older than the technology
The Galveston County Auto Crimes Task Force appears in the Commissioners Court’s record on 12 January 1995 and in 126 items since. It is a unit of the Sheriff’s Office, funded by the state agency now called the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, and it takes in other agencies by interlocal agreement: the City of Galveston, the City of La Marque, League City and Brazoria County have all been parties.
In January 2021 the Court passed a resolution so that the task force could meet the Texas Department of Public Safety’s requirements for access to the state license plate reader program and hold its own originating agency identifier. The resolution’s operative sentence is broader than its subject: the task force “will be empowered to enforce all laws, including municipal ordinances, county ordinances, state laws, federal laws and policies”.
Free first, paid later
In July 2020 the Court authorized a memorandum of understanding with Flock Group at no cost, running five years, giving the Sheriff’s Office access to Flock’s platform to view and search recordings. The agreement says no financial commitment is required and that “Data that the agency does not own may only be accessed for investigative purposes”.
The first paid contract came in December 2022: five Falcon cameras, $16,250 for the first year. By the autumn of 2024 there were two subscriptions of five cameras each, $15,000 a year apiece, kept separate because one set stands on Texas Department of Transportation right of way and the other does not. The non-highway subscription includes FlockOS, whose listed features cover lookup across the state network, lookup across a nationwide network, alerts against federal databases for missing and wanted persons, unlimited custom hot lists, and the ability to request access to privately owned Flock cameras in neighborhoods, schools and businesses.
Onto the state’s roads
On 21 August 2023 the Court resolved to enter a multiple use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation permitting plate reader cameras on state right of way. It was item 32 on a consent agenda that ran to 67 items, and the motion that carried the block named four exceptions. Item 32 was not one of them, so the vote that put county cameras on state highways took no discussion at all.
What the record does not say
No Galveston County record we read states how long a read is kept, which agencies can search the county’s reads, or whether searches are logged. The Court has never been shown a usage policy. The Flock agreements say Flock deletes footage on a rolling thirty day basis and that keeping anything longer is the agency’s own job, which is a vendor’s retention term rather than a county policy.
What stands in the county
Contributors have mapped 298 plate readers in Galveston County. The contracts above account for fourteen devices. The gap belongs mostly to the cities: the EFF Atlas records the police departments of Dickinson, Friendswood, Hitchcock, Kemah, La Marque, League City and Texas City as Flock Safety operators, and it records that the Texas Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, the same state agency that funds the county’s task force, gave League City its cameras. 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 first request on this county’s list asks the Sheriff’s Office for the reader inventory, the retention period, the sharing list and any query audit. The second asks which Flock networks the office has opted into, because the subscription’s own feature list includes access to cameras nobody in Galveston County bought.
What we do not know
- How many readers the Sheriff's Office operates, of what kinds, and where they stand.
- How long a read is kept, who may search it, and whether queries are audited.
- Which Flock Safety sharing networks the office has joined, and which agencies it shares with.
- What became of the system bought in 2007.
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 Galveston County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Galveston 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. Galveston County Commissioners Court, Bid B071047 award and Purchasing Agent letter, 1 August 2007 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 2.
- 3. Flock Group data sharing memorandum of understanding, before the Court 27 July 2020 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 4. Flock Group services agreement order form and the TxDOT multiple use agreement, filed with item 32, 21 August 2023 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 5. Flock Safety renewal quote Q-75200, TxDOT cameras, FY25 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 6. Flock Safety renewal quote Q-94917, non-TxDOT cameras, FY25 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 7. Vigilant Solutions renewal quote, two cameras, 14 October 2024 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 8. Galveston County Commissioners Court, minutes, 24 June 2024, consent item 26 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 9. Galveston County Commissioners Court, minutes, 21 August 2023, consent item 32 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 10.
- 11. OpenStreetMap contributors, surveillance devices mapped in Galveston County · Dataset · accessed
- 12. EFF Atlas of Surveillance, Galveston County entries · Dataset · accessed
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