Midland County Sheriff | Phone extraction and jail calls
Midland County has bought phone-unlocking software three times since 2020, the first license out of the Sheriff's donation account. In 2026 it changed jail telephone providers and signed an agreement to share personal information with the new one.
At a glance
- What it is
- Cellebrite forensic software, used to extract data from a phone that has been seized, run by the Sheriff's criminal investigation division; and the county jail's telephone, video visit and mail system, run by a contractor [2] [3] [6]
- What the county has posted spending
- $117,628.96 for the first Cellebrite purchase in August 2020 and $99,783.43 for the fiscal 2022 agreement. The 2023 renewal carries no price in the record [2] [3] [4]
- Who paid
- The Sheriff's Office donation funds paid for the 2020 purchase. The 2021 and 2023 agreements were budgeted items [2] [3] [4]
- When a phone can be searched
- No county record sets out when the software may be used, what authority is required, what is kept afterwards or who may see it
- The jail telephone contractor
- Securus from 2016 to 2026, for inmate telephones, video visitation and mail. The county terminated that contract on 5 May 2026 and approved a personal information sharing agreement with Inmate Calling Solutions, LLC on 4 August 2026 [1] [5] [6] [7]
- What the information sharing agreement covers
- Not stated. The item is one line and the exhibit pages are not published [7]
How it happened
- Procurement
The jail's phones, video visits and mail go to one contractor
The Court authorized the County Judge to sign a Securus video visitation and inmate telephone contract, awarded on a request for proposals. It ran, through addenda and rate changes, for ten years. [1]
- Procurement
$117,628.96 of phone extraction, out of the donation account
The Purchasing Agent brought a quote from GTS Technology Solutions for Cellebrite for the Sheriff's criminal investigation division, $117,628.96, "using SO Donation funds". It had been tabled a fortnight earlier when the Court asked what the maintenance would cost and was told the amount was unknown. This time it passed. [2] [8]
- Procurement
A second license, described in four words
The county's IT department brought the fiscal 2022 Cellebrite agreement, $99,783.43. The minutes describe what it does in four words: "Forensic cell phone software." [3]
- Procurement
Renewed as a budgeted item
The IT Director brought the renewal of Cellebrite software for the Sheriff's Office. It is recorded as a budgeted item, with no price in the minutes. [4]
- Decision
The jail contract ends
The Sheriff asked the Court to terminate the county's contract with Securus, and a second item terminated a contract with a payments company. Both passed unanimously. [5]
- Decision
A new provider, and an agreement to share personal information
The Court approved a "Personal Identifiable Information Sharing Agreement" with Inmate Calling Solutions, LLC for the Sheriff's Office. The item is three lines long. Immediately after the vote the minutes record a Midland County resident speaking about a security breach. [7]
Phone extraction is the quietest thing a county buys. It leaves no camera on a pole and it appears in an agenda as a product name. Midland County has bought it three times: once in 2020 for $117,628.96, paid out of the Sheriff’s donation account after the Court was told nobody knew what the maintenance would cost; once in 2021 for $99,783.43, described in the minutes as forensic cell phone software; and once more in 2023 as a budgeted renewal with no price stated. The county’s Anti-Gang unit then bought $500,000 of cellphone hardware of its own in November 2025.
The jail’s telephones are the other half. The same contractor held the county’s inmate telephone, video visitation and mail contract from 2016 until May 2026, when the Court terminated it. Three months later it approved an agreement to share personally identifiable information with the replacement provider. The item is three lines long, and the minutes record that a resident stood up after the vote to talk about a security breach.
What we do not know
- When may the Sheriff's Office use its phone extraction software, and under what authority?
- What is kept after an extraction, for how long, and who can see it?
- What does the personal information sharing agreement with the jail telephone contractor cover?
- How does the county's own phone extraction relate to the $500,000 of hardware its Anti-Gang unit bought in November 2025?
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 17 October 2023, item 68, the Cellebrite software renewal · Meeting record · · accessed
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- 8.
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