County security cameras
Travis County runs a countywide Genetec camera and badge system. It appears in the budget, in the technology department's goals and in the county's asset lists, and nowhere in the record is it counted.
At a glance
- What it is
- A "countywide Genetec Security system", described in the county's own capital request as a camera and badge system, run by Information Technology Services [1] [2]
- The upgrade asked for
- $2,750,000 in the Fiscal Year 2025 capital budget, for "Capital resources to upgrade the countywide Genetec Security system to allow for full ITS oversight" [1] [2]
- A second camera line in the same budget
- "Law Enforcement Cameras Phase IV", $1,127,838 in the same Fiscal Year 2025 request, and "Law Enforcement Enterprise Cameras System Phase 4" in the markup worksheet [1] [2]
- Still a goal in 2025
- "Modernize Genetec Security System" appears under the technology department's short-term goals in its May 2025 presentation to the Court [3]
How it happened
- Procurement
The upgrade reaches the budget
The Fiscal Year 2025 capital funding recommendations carry $2,750,000 to upgrade the countywide Genetec security system for full oversight by Information Technology Services, alongside $1,127,838 for a fourth phase of law enforcement cameras. [1]
- Procurement
It carries through the markup worksheets
The budget markup worksheet lists the "Genetec Camera and Badge System Enterprise Upgrade" at $2,750,000 in both the requested and preliminary columns, with "Law Enforcement Enterprise Cameras System Phase 4" beneath it. [2]
- Context
Modernizing the system is a department goal
The Technology and Operations presentation to the Court lists "Modernize Genetec Security System" among Information Technology Services' short-term goals. [3]
The cameras a county owns itself rarely reach an agenda as a purchase. They arrive as a budget line, and Travis County’s is a large one. The Fiscal Year 2025 capital funding recommendations ask for $2,750,000 in “Capital resources to upgrade the countywide Genetec Security system to allow for full ITS oversight”.[1] The markup worksheet names the same line “Genetec Camera and Badge System Enterprise Upgrade”.[2]
Genetec sells video management software: one interface over many cameras, with recording, search and access control. The county’s own wording, a camera and badge system, describes both halves.
A second line sits beside it in the same budget, “Law Enforcement Cameras Phase IV” at $1,127,838, which the markup worksheet calls “Law Enforcement Enterprise Cameras System Phase 4”.[1][2] The documents do not say what the earlier three phases bought.
In May 2025 the technology department told the Court that modernizing the Genetec security system was one of its short-term goals.[3]
What is not in the record
No document the Commissioners Court has taken up says how many cameras the county operates, which buildings they are in, whether any of them see a public street, how long recordings are kept, who may watch them, or whether access is logged. The only camera count anywhere in the record is the roughly 1,100 in the jail, which the 2027 Axon request proposes to move to a different vendor.
A county security system for county buildings is ordinary and unremarkable. Its size, its retention and who can search it are still public questions, and the budget is the only place they have been asked in public so far.
What we do not know
- How many cameras the county's Genetec system holds, in which buildings, and whether any of them look outward onto a street or a parking lot the public uses.
- How long recordings are kept, who may view them, and whether viewing is logged.
- What "Law Enforcement Enterprise Cameras System Phase 4" covers, and how it relates to the jail's separate system.
- Whether the badge half of the system records staff movement, and how long those records last.
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Travis County.
What we have documented in Travis 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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