How to show up in Harris County
Surveillance is approved by people who hold public meetings any resident can attend. This page lists the bodies that do that in Harris County, what we have confirmed about attending each one, and where each publishes its agendas.
We do not publish meeting dates. A schedule we cannot check often enough would eventually send someone to the wrong place on the wrong night. Each body below links to wherever it publishes its own agendas and schedule, and that is the copy to trust.
Countywide
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Harris County Commissioners Court
Watch this oneEvery plate reader purchase, every camera access agreement and every subscription on this county's pages was approved here. The Court approves its whole agenda as presented unless an item is pulled, so an item nobody speaks to passes without a separate vote.
- When
- Roughly twice a month. Through 2026 the regular meetings have mostly fallen on a Thursday, with occasional Tuesday business court and special meetings. The posted calendar is the authority.
- Where
- 1001 Preston, 1st Floor, Houston, TX 77002
- Remote
- Meetings can be watched online through the county's Court Videos page. Speaking is in person.
- Public comment
- Sign up with an appearance request form, submitted one hour before the meeting commences. Speakers may address the Court for up to one minute in total, however many agenda items they sign up on. Comments on topics that do not address a specific agenda item are also limited to one minute and are heard after all agenda-related comments. At business court and special meetings, speakers may only sign up on posted agenda items.
- Written comment
- Members of the public are invited to email written comments to the Court.
The Court does not publish minutes. What it publishes instead is a results list per meeting, kept by the County Clerk, headed "All agenda items approved as presented with the following exceptions". To find out what happened to an item, read that list: an item that is not on it was approved as presented. The lists run back to 2002 and are at cclerk.hctx.net/applications/websearch/CCExceptions.aspx. Agendas from 2021 onward are on the Legistar calendar; earlier ones are in the agenda portal's own pre-2021 archive.
Confirmed ·
What this list does not cover yet
These are the bodies we have confirmed, not every body in the county. Harris County has other commissions and committees, and other school and special districts, that we have not documented yet. Several of the county's own committees publish on the same county portal linked above.
Before you go, and after
Civic action
Read what is already on the record for Harris County first. A resident who has read the contract changes the room.
What is documented in Harris County →Personal protection
Knowing which systems operate near you also tells you where your own choices still matter.
EFF Surveillance Self-Defense ↗