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ORWELL INDEX

Who runs license plate readers in Travis County?

On the map

0
Verified by us
492
Community-reported

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

What we do not know

Travis County Sheriff

  • How many plate reader cameras the contract covers, and where they are.
  • How long the reads are kept, who can search them, and whether the searches are audited.
  • Which agencies outside Travis County can see reads from this system.
  • What the $60,800 federal plate reader grant the Sheriff's Office held in 2015 paid for, and whether it is part of this system.

Travis County Sheriff

  • Whether any similar request has been made to the county since, and how it was handled.
  • What the Sheriff's Office memorandum of understanding with Flock Safety says, and how many private camera networks it reaches.
  • Whether the county has a written position on private surveillance equipment in its right of way.

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 not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Travis County.

Go to the Travis County hub →

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 ↗