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Midland County Sheriff and Midland County DA | License plate readers

Midland County's plate reader network began as a way to watch illegal dump sites, was exempted from competitive bidding as a public health measure, and was paid for out of the Sheriff's donation account. The Sheriff's own count to the Court is fifty-two, and no county policy says who may search them.

At a glance

Who operates them
The Midland County Sheriff's Office. Until January 2024 the agreement was held by the District Attorney's environmental investigator [3] [7] [8]
How many
Fifty-two, the total the Sheriff gave the Court in December 2025, with eight more approved for state highway right of way in March 2026. His first order, in April 2023, was for 16 [5] [9] [10]
What the county has posted spending
$55,977.78 for the first 16 cameras in April 2023, and $16,765.00 in July 2022 for a mobile Vigilant Solutions reader on one investigation car. The 2022 agreement, the December 2025 expansion and the March 2026 additions carry no price in the record [5] [4] [2] [9] [10]
How they were bought
Not by competitive bid. The Court exempted the first Flock agreement from bidding in September 2022 under Texas Local Government Code 262.024, as necessary to protect the public health or safety of residents. The Sheriff's 16 cameras came a year later on an OMNIA Partners cooperative contract, which satisfies the bidding requirement without a bid [3] [5]
Who paid
The Sheriff's donation account. On the morning it approved the 16 cameras the Court moved $56,400.00 out of the Sheriff's Office General Donation Revenue line and into its equipment rental line to cover them [5]
Where they are
Two roads are named in twelve years of record, SCR 1223 and ECR 60, both in a July 2023 block of road-crossing permits. An earlier block covers unnamed locations in three of the county's four precincts, and the state highway agreements name no location at all [6] [11] [9] [10]
How long a read is kept
No county record says. Flock Safety's own agreement, published with the April 2023 minutes, provides for footage to be deleted on a rolling thirty-day basis and leaves it to the agency to extract and archive anything it wants to keep [5]
Who can search the data
Not stated. The briefing behind the county's first cameras says the system "will allow for information sharing among all locals LEO's that have Flock", and no sharing list, user roster or audit appears anywhere in the record [5]
A county policy
None appears in the agendas and minutes we read, 2015 to 2026

How it happened

  1. Debate

    A constable brings plate readers, and the Court says no four times

    Constable Precinct 4 presented a memorandum of understanding with Vigilant Solutions in April 2016. The Court questioned the funding split, the indemnity, and the company's ability to debit the county's account, and tabled it. It came back in May, in June with a company representative present, and in July. The June minutes record the Court asking how many Texas counties used the system and whether its data had ever been taken, and conclude: the Court would not sign anything with a California venue and did not let people access its bank accounts. The item was tabled to August 2016 and never returned. [1]

  2. Procurement

    One reader, on one car

    The county's Purchasing Agent brought a quote from Vigilant Solutions for $16,765.00 for a plate reader on a single criminal investigation vehicle, scanning against the state and national stolen vehicle files. It passed unanimously. It is the only reader in the record bought out of the county's own budget. [2]

  3. Decision

    The cameras arrive as an environmental tool

    The first Flock Camera Agreement was presented by the District Attorney's environmental investigator, not by the Sheriff. The County Attorney had negotiated changes Flock accepted, the County Judge asked about the fees for the cameras and their installation, and the Court approved it. [3]

  4. Decision

    Exempted from bidding, as a matter of public health

    Ten days later a special meeting took one substantive item. The Court exempted the Flock Camera Agreement from competitive bidding under Texas Local Government Code 262.024, on the statutory ground that it was necessary to preserve or protect the public health or safety of the residents. Motion by Commissioner Donnelly, seconded by Commissioner Sanchez, all five for. [4]

  5. Deployment

    The locations pass with the pipeline permits

    Flock Safety appears on the Court's list of applications to cross a county road, between two oil companies and an electric utility: "various proposed locations" in Precinct 1, in Precinct 2 and in Precinct 3. The whole list was approved on one motion. [11]

  6. Procurement

    16 cameras, $55,977.78, paid for out of donations

    The Sheriff brought a Flock Law Enforcement Agreement and the Court approved it. The quote published with the minutes is from Insight Public Sector on an OMNIA Partners cooperative contract, dated 10 April 2023, for a twelve-month term: 16 solar-powered, mobile-network plate recognition cameras at $3,000.00 each, six advanced installations at $1,250.00, two professional service charges at $238.89 and eight mountings on existing infrastructure at no charge. Total $55,977.78. Later the same morning the Court moved $56,400.00 from the Sheriff's Office donation revenue line into its equipment rental line to pay for them. The briefing behind that transfer records that the County Attorney had not reviewed the agreement. [5]

  7. Deployment

    Two roads, named

    A second block of road-crossing permits carries "Flock Safety on SCR 1223" and "Flock Safety on ECR 60". These are the only two camera locations named anywhere in the county's record. [6]

  8. Decision

    The system moves to the Sheriff

    The Sheriff and the District Attorney's environmental investigator presented the item together. The minutes record that the Sheriff's Office would be taking over the Flock Safety Agreement, and the motion moved it from Environmental to the Sheriff's Department. A budget hearing seven months earlier had already noted that the criminal investigation division "gained the flock cameras". [7] [8]

  9. Expansion

    Onto the state's roads

    The Sheriff brought a resolution for a Multiple Use Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation "in reference to the ALPR system". Approved unanimously. A multiple use agreement is what lets equipment sit in state highway right of way; the resolution names no location and no count. [9]

  10. Expansion

    Fifty-two

    The Sheriff asked for more cameras. The minutes record the whole justification in one sentence: "This is for a total of 52 flock cameras." Approved by the three members present, with one commissioner away from the bench. No price is stated and the exhibit pages are not published. [10]

  11. Expansion

    Eight more on the highway

    An amended Multiple Use Agreement for the installation of Flock cameras on state highway right of way, presented by the Sheriff: "We are adding 8 additional flock cameras." Approved unanimously. [12]

The first plate readers Midland County ever considered were rejected. A constable brought a Vigilant Solutions agreement to the Commissioners Court four times in 2016, and four times the Court tabled it, asking who else used the system, whether its data had ever been taken, and where a dispute would be heard.

Six years later the cameras arrived from a direction nobody was watching. The District Attorney’s environmental investigator, whose job is illegal dumping, brought a Flock Safety camera agreement in September 2022. Ten days after approving it the Court held a special meeting and exempted the agreement from competitive bidding, on the statutory ground that it was necessary to protect the public health or safety of the residents. The briefing the same officer filed the following spring explains what the cameras were for, in his own words: to pay for the cameras being used to monitor dump sites, and to allow information sharing among all local law enforcement that have Flock.

That is how a dump-site camera network became a county plate reader network. In April 2023 the Sheriff bought sixteen of his own, and in December 2025 he told the Court a further purchase would bring the county to fifty-two.

On the map

The community has mapped 163 devices of this type in the county on OpenStreetMap. These are community reports: the vendor and operator of each point are unverified, and none is confirmed to belong to this system. See them on the map →

Street names from reverse geocoding — © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

What we do not know

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

  1. 1.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 13 June 2016, item 12, the Vigilant Solutions contract and the Court's questions about it · Meeting record · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 11 July 2022, item 24, purchase of a license plate reader system from Vigilant Solutions for $16,765.00 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 12 September 2022, item 32, the first Flock Camera Agreement · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of the special meeting of 22 September 2022, item 4, exempting the Flock Camera Agreement from competitive bidding · Meeting record · · accessed
  5. 5.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 24 April 2023, items 46, 73, 74 and 75, with the Insight Public Sector quote, the Flock Safety agreement and the donation-line budget amendment published as exhibit pages · Meeting record · · accessed
  6. 6.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 24 July 2023, road-crossing permits for Flock Safety on SCR 1223 and ECR 60 · Meeting record · · accessed
  7. 7.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 22 January 2024, item 9, moving the Flock Safety Agreement from Environmental to the Sheriff's Office · Meeting record · · accessed
  8. 8.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 12 June 2023, the Sheriff's Office budget hearing, recording that the criminal investigation division gained the Flock cameras · Meeting record · · accessed
  9. 9.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 7 May 2024, item 9, the resolution for a Multiple Use Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation for the ALPR system · Meeting record · · accessed
  10. 10.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 16 December 2025, item 4, additional Flock cameras for a total of 52 · Meeting record · · accessed
  11. 11.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 14 November 2022, road-crossing permits for Flock Safety at unnamed locations in Precincts 1, 2 and 3 · Meeting record · · accessed
  12. 12.
    Midland County Commissioners Court, minutes of 3 March 2026, item 9, the amended Multiple Use Agreement adding eight Flock cameras on state highway right of way · Meeting record · · accessed

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