Midland County Sheriff | The Permian Basin Anti-Gang unit
In November 2025 Midland County accepted a $2.5 million state grant and became the home of a regional intelligence unit. Within six months it had bought half a million dollars of phone-extraction hardware, a surveillance platform the record does not describe, and storage for pole camera video.
At a glance
- What it is
- A Texas Anti-Gang unit for the Permian Basin, run out of the Midland County Sheriff's Office with Midland County as the fiscal agent. Its staff are county employees paid from the grant: an administrator hired in June 2025 and two criminal analysts created in November 2025 [1] [2] [3]
- What it is funded by
- A $2,500,000 Texas Anti-Gang grant accepted on 4 November 2025, after being tabled twice in October. The county applied for a further $2.682 million for fiscal 2027 in March 2026 [3] [7]
- What it has bought
- $500,000 of Cognyte cellphone hardware, a $222,442.48 Point Blank Surveillance Platform, a Digital WatchDog server for pole camera video, a $51,865.00 Vigilant plate reader subscription through Motorola Solutions, five Axon Sky-Hero ground robots and a $36,246.35 drug analyzer [4] [8] [5] [6] [9] [10]
- Who else it shares with
- Not listed. The minutes record that the phone hardware would be shared "with other communities around us", an information-sharing contract for participating agencies, and an interlocal agreement giving the unit's analysts access to Ector County records. No roster of participating agencies appears in the county's record [4] [11] [12]
- What the surveillance platform is
- Not stated. The Court approved $222,442.48 for a "Point Blank Surveillance Platform" by that name alone, with no vendor, no description and no published exhibit [8]
- Where the pole cameras are
- Not stated in any county record [5]
- An oversight or use policy
- None appears in the county's record. The unit reports to the Sheriff, and the Commissioners Court sees it as purchase items and budget amendments
How it happened
- Context
A post before a program
The Sheriff asked the Court to create a Texas Anti-Gang Task Force Grant Administrator, a new civilian position "paid for with grant". Approved. It is the first appearance of the unit in the county's record, five months before any money was accepted. [1]
- Decision
The agreement, then the money, twice deferred
The Court approved the memorandum of understanding for the Texas Anti-Gang Task Force and a supplemental agreement on the use of grant funds for travel, training and overtime. The $2,500,000 award itself, and the budget amendment to spend it, were tabled. Both were tabled again on 21 October. [2] [13]
- Procurement
$2.5 million, and half a million of it spent the same morning
The Court acknowledged the grant award, moved the $2,500,000 from a revenue line into expense lines, and then approved the purchase of Cognyte cellphone hardware. The minutes carry the whole case for it in three sentences: it is for $500,000.00, it will be purchased with 100 per cent funding from the grant, and "We will share with other communities around us." Immediately afterwards the Court created a Senior Criminal Analyst and a Criminal Analyst post, both paid from the grant. [3] [4]
- Deployment
Storage for pole camera video
A Digital WatchDog server and licenses, bought with grant funds. The minutes say what it is for: "This will provide storage for video evidence on pole cameras in TAG operations." It is the only line in the county's record that says the unit runs pole cameras at all. [5]
- Expansion
Another county's records, and another year's money
The Court authorized an interlocal agreement with the Ector County Sheriff's Office to give the unit's analysts access to Ector County records, funded from the grant, and authorized an application for $2.682 million of Anti-Gang money for fiscal 2027. [12] [7]
- Decision
An information-sharing system
An Entrical/LENSS contract for an information-sharing system for the unit's participating agencies. Approved unanimously. The item names no agency and the exhibit pages are not published. [11]
- Procurement
$222,442.48 for a surveillance platform
The unit's administrator presented a purchase of a "Point Blank Surveillance Platform" using grant funds, $222,442.48. The motion, the vote and the price are recorded. What the platform is, and who sells it, are not. [8]
- Procurement
A plate reader subscription
An addendum to a Motorola Solutions quote for the unit's software subscription. The motion names the product the item title does not: "the Vigilant subscription to Motorola for the TAG software subscription in the amount of $51,865.00". [6]
- Procurement
Five ground robots
Five Axon Sky-Hero ground robots, bought with grant funds. When the purchase returned to the Court in August the Sheriff described the machines in four words: "Small camera for officer safety." [9] [14]
The most expensive surveillance in Midland County is not the cameras. It is a unit that appears in the Commissioners Court’s record as a grant number, a job title, and a run of purchase items.
Texas funds Anti-Gang centers through the Governor’s office, and a county that hosts one holds the money and employs the staff. Midland County’s began in June 2025 as a single new civilian post, approved five months before any money arrived. The $2,500,000 award itself was tabled twice in October 2025 and accepted on 4 November, and the Court spent $500,000 of it the same morning, on cellphone hardware from Cognyte that the Sheriff said would be shared with other communities around us.
What followed reads like an inventory of a small intelligence agency: storage for pole camera video, a plate reader software subscription, an information-sharing contract for participating agencies, an agreement to read a neighboring county’s records, and, in April 2026, $222,442.48 for something the minutes call a Point Blank Surveillance Platform and describe no further. The county has applied for $2.682 million more.
Not one of those items says the word surveillance in its title, except the one that does.
What we do not know
- What is the Point Blank Surveillance Platform, who sells it, and what does it do?
- Which agencies participate in the unit, and what can each of them see?
- What does the Cognyte hardware extract, from whose phones, and under what authority?
- Where are the pole cameras, and how long is their video kept?
- What is in the grant's own equipment budget, which the county holds and has not published?
- Does the unit have a written use policy, an audit procedure, or any civilian oversight?
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 Midland County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Midland 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
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- 4. Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 4 November 2025, item 7, the $500,000 Cognyte cellphone hardware purchase · Meeting record · · accessed
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- 8. Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 21 April 2026, item 5, the $222,442.48 Point Blank Surveillance Platform · Meeting record · · accessed
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- 14.
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