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Montgomery County Sheriff, Constable Precinct 4 and Constable Precinct 5 | License plate readers

Montgomery County has bought automatic plate readers since 2007, most of them without a bid and most of them on the consent agenda. The one time a plate reader item was taken out of consent and debated, the County Judge voted against it.

At a glance

First bought
4 June 2007, a mobile license plate recognition unit for the Sheriff's Office from AutoVu Technologies, Inc., $31,932.00 [1] [2]
Largest purchase
5 November 2012, $380,158.56 of automated license plate reader systems from ELSAG North America, bought on a discretionary exemption through GSA Schedule 84 and paid for out of the 2011 UASI homeland security grant [3]
Fixed readers in the state right of way
Two Multiple Use Agreements with the Texas Department of Transportation, for installation in May 2019 and for operation in October 2021 [7] [9]
Access to the state database
Constable Precinct 5 signed a user agreement with the Texas Department of Public Safety for its Texas Automated License Plate Reader Database on 24 October 2023 [11]
Flock Safety cameras in county right of way
Two agreements, for the Lake Windcrest subdivision in March 2020 and with Montgomery County Municipal Utility District No. 113 in November 2025. Both on the consent agenda [12] [13]
How many readers are running now
Not stated in any Commissioners Court minutes. The 40 light bar mounts bought in January 2013 are the only count of any kind in the record [4]
Where the fixed readers are
Not stated. The highway department agreements name no location in the minutes [7] [9]
How long plate reads are kept, and who can search them
No retention period or sharing list appears in any Commissioners Court minutes [3] [7] [9]
A plate reader policy
None has been presented to the Commissioners Court in the minutes the County Clerk publishes, which run from September 1983 to August 2026 [3] [7]

How it happened

  1. Procurement

    The county advertises for its first plate reader

    The Court authorizes advertising for "RFP/Q Mobile license plate recognition unit, software and warranty - Sheriff's Office". [1]

  2. Procurement

    AutoVu wins it, for $31,932

    The Court awards the proposal, opened on 14 May 2007, to AutoVu Technologies, Inc. for $31,932.00. [2]

  3. Procurement

    $380,158.56 of ELSAG readers, on a federal grant, without a bid

    The Court approves a discretionary exemption to ELSAG North America for automated license plate reader systems, bought through a federal supply schedule contract and funded by the 2011 UASI law enforcement grant. The same meeting buys 30 in-car camera systems from Coban Technologies for $180,000.00 through the Houston-Galveston Area Council. [3]

  4. Deployment

    Forty light bar mounts

    The Court buys 40 low profile light bar mount brackets from ELSAG North America for $14,250.00 on the same grant, on the consent agenda. It is the only number in the record that says how many vehicles the readers were meant to cover. [4]

  5. Procurement

    A grant application for seven more

    The Court approves submitting a Houston-Galveston Area Council grant application for the purchase and installation of seven license plate recognition systems, $121,952.14 of fiscal year 2015 funding with no county match. [5]

  6. Deployment

    One is sold to pay for its replacement

    On the consent agenda, the Court approves the sale of a reader bought with county funds, the proceeds going to the Auto Theft Task Force budget to offset replacements. [6]

  7. Debate

    Pulled out of consent, and the County Judge votes no

    The Sheriff's agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation to install a fixed plate reader is taken off the consent agenda and moved on its own. The Court approves it and the minutes record that the County Judge voted "No". [7]

  8. Deployment

    Flock Safety cameras go into county right of way

    On the consent agenda, the Court approves an agreement authorizing the installation of Flock Safety cameras in county rights of way in three sections of the Lake Windcrest subdivision. The cameras are not the county's. [12]

  9. Procurement

    A constable signs with Vigilant Solutions

    On the consent agenda, the Court approves a law enforcement software services agreement with Vigilant Solutions LLC for Constable Precinct 4. The minutes give no price and no term. [8]

  10. Deployment

    The second highway department agreement, back on consent

    A Multiple Use Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation for the operation of a fixed plate reader passes inside the consent block, without discussion. [9]

  11. Procurement

    Plate readers arrive titled as a speed trailer

    On the consent agenda, the Court approves a fiscal year 2024 grant application to the Office of the Governor for a radar speed trailer with plate readers, $81,006 for Constable Precinct 5, with no county match. [10]

  12. Expansion

    A constable joins the state plate reader database

    On the consent agenda, the Court approves a user agreement between Constable Precinct 5 and the Texas Department of Public Safety for access to the Texas Automated License Plate Reader Database. [11]

  13. Expansion

    A utility district puts Flock Safety on a county thoroughfare

    On the consent agenda, the Court approves an agreement with Montgomery County Municipal Utility District No. 113 authorizing the installation of Flock Safety on Fish Creek Thoroughfare. [13]

An automatic plate reader photographs every vehicle that passes it and records the plate, the time and the place. Montgomery County started buying them in 2007 and has not stopped. What the county’s own record shows is the buying; what it does not show is anything about the reading.

Nineteen years of purchases

The first was one mobile unit. In April 2007 the Court authorized advertising for “RFP/Q Mobile license plate recognition unit, software and warranty - Sheriff’s Office”,[1] and in June it awarded the proposal to AutoVu Technologies, Inc. for $31,932.00.[2]

Five years later the scale changed. On 5 November 2012 the Court approved a discretionary exemption to ELSAG North America “for automated license plate reader systems in the amount of $380,158.56 through the GSA Schedule 84 contract #GS07F0004Y, funded out of the 2011 UASI LETPA Grant”.[3] A discretionary exemption is the Texas mechanism that lets a county buy without seeking competitive bids. The money was federal, from the Urban Area Security Initiative, and the buying department was Emergency Management rather than the Sheriff. The same meeting approved 30 in-car camera systems from Coban Technologies for $180,000.00 through the Houston-Galveston Area Council.[3]

Three months later the Court bought “forty (40) low profile light bar mount brackets from ELSAG North America in the amount of $14,250.00”, on the same grant.[4] That is the only figure in the whole county record that says anything about how many vehicles were being fitted.

In February 2014 the Court approved a grant application to the Houston-Galveston Area Council “for the purchase and installation of seven License Plate Recognition Systems”, $121,952.14 with no county match.[5] A year later it sold one reader and put the proceeds towards replacements, on the consent agenda.[6]

The one that was argued about

On 28 May 2019 the Sheriff had an item on the consent agenda: an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation about a fixed plate reader. Someone had it pulled. The minutes record that agenda item 9K2 was moved to the open session, and then that the Court approved “the Multiple Use Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation regarding the installation of a fixed license plate reader”. The next sentence reads: Judge Keough voted "No". Motion carried.[7]

That is the only recorded dissent on any surveillance item in the forty-two sets of minutes read for these pages. Two years later, on 12 October 2021, the Court approved a second agreement with the same department, this one “regarding the operation of a fixed license plate reader”. It was inside the consent block, approved in the single motion that carried everything from the County Clerk’s minutes to the airport.[9]

What the constables buy

Each of the county’s five constables is separately elected and buys separately. Two of those purchases are in the record. In May 2021 the Court approved a “LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY-SOFTWARE SERVICES AGREEMENT APPROVED with Vigilant Solutions LLC” for Constable Precinct 4, with no price and no term stated.[8] In October 2023 it approved a “USER AGREEMENT APPROVED between the Constable Precinct 5 and the Texas Department of Public Safety for access to their Texas Automated License Plate Reader Database”.[11] Both were on consent.

Nine months before that second one, the same precinct had asked for hardware. On 24 January 2023 the Court approved, also on consent, a “FISCAL YEAR 2024 RADAR SPEED TRAILER WITH LPR’S GRANT APPLICATION AND RESOLUTION APPROVED to the Office of the Governor in the amount of $81,006”.[10] A reader search of the county’s minutes for the words “plate reader” does not return that item. It is titled for a speed trailer.

Cameras the county does not own, standing on county land

Most of the plate readers volunteers have mapped in Montgomery County record Flock Safety as the manufacturer. The Commissioners Court’s minutes mention Flock Safety twice.

The first was on 17 March 2020: an “AGREEMENT APPROVED authorizing the installation of Flock Safety Cameras within various rights-of-way in Sections 1, 4, and 5 of Lake Windcrest Subdivision”, a Precinct 2 item under the County Attorney, on the consent agenda.[12] The second was on 4 November 2025: an “AGREEMENT APPROVED with MUD No. 113 authorizing the installation of Flock Safety on Fish Creek Thoroughfare”, also Precinct 2, also on consent.[13]

A municipal utility district is an elected local body that finances water and sewer for a subdivision, and in this part of Texas many of them pay for neighborhood patrols and cameras too. What reaches the county in these items is permission: somebody else’s cameras, on county road right of way. The minutes do not say who owns them, who can search them, or what the county gets.

The word turns up once more. On 6 August 2026 a resident took the microphone in the citizens section. The minutes record that they “had concerns of the jail and flock cameras” and that, “Due to the lack of connection to a noticed agenda item”, they could not continue.[14]

What the record does not say

Every figure above is the amount the Court approved. The quote, the order form and the scope are attachments, published as scanned images on the county’s own website, one file per motion. None of them has been read for these pages. So the county’s record establishes that Montgomery County has been buying plate readers for nineteen years and says nothing about how many are running, where the fixed ones stand, how long a plate read is kept, or which agencies can search the file. No plate reader policy has ever been presented to the Commissioners Court.

On the map

The community has mapped 345 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 Montgomery County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Montgomery 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.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 9 April 2007 · Meeting record · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 4 June 2007 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 5 November 2012, motions 19 and 20 · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 28 January 2013, consent item T · Meeting record · · accessed
  5. 5.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 24 February 2014, motion 9 · Meeting record · · accessed
  6. 6.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 21 April 2015, consent item I1 · Meeting record · · accessed
  7. 7.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 28 May 2019, motion 5 · Meeting record · · accessed
  8. 8.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 25 May 2021, consent item Q1 · Meeting record · · accessed
  9. 9.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 12 October 2021, consent item N1 · Meeting record · · accessed
  10. 10.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 24 January 2023, consent item U3 · Meeting record · · accessed
  11. 11.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 24 October 2023, consent item T1 · Meeting record · · accessed
  12. 12.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 17 March 2020, consent item M2b · Meeting record · · accessed
  13. 13.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 4 November 2025, consent item L1a · Meeting record · · accessed
  14. 14.
    Montgomery County Commissioners Court, minutes, 6 August 2026, citizens section · Meeting record · · accessed

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