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ORWELL INDEX

Who runs license plate readers in Hidalgo County?

On the map

0
Verified by us
265
Community-reported

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

What we do not know

Hidalgo County Sheriff, Constable Precinct 1 and Constable Precinct 4

  • How many plate readers Hidalgo County operates, and where each one stands.
  • How long a plate read is kept, and what happens to it at the end of that period.
  • Who inside the county may run a plate search, what a search has to be for, and whether anyone audits them.
  • Whether the county has a plate reader policy of its own, beyond the two the Constables adopted because a grant required it.
  • Whether the Flock Safety cameras bought in 2024 share their reads with other agencies outside Hidalgo County.
  • How many SkyCop towers the county owns, and how many of them read plates.

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 Hidalgo County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Hidalgo 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 ↗