We are calling on El Paso City Council to cancel this contract and not renew it. Before the city makes any decision, residents deserve to know the truth about what these cameras do, who can access the data, and why this vendor cannot be trusted.
El Paso Flock contract expiration: May 16, 2026
El Paso is not Flock's customer.— DeFlock El Paso
El Paso residents are the product.
Flock Safety is valued at $7.5 billion. El Paso paid less than $5,000 per camera per year to photograph every vehicle in our city, 24 hours a day. That price only makes sense if your movements, your patterns, and your data are worth far more than the hardware. You didn't sign up to be surveilled. El Paso signed you up for them.
Flock cameras run Android 8.1 — discontinued in 2021, never to be patched again. 22 confirmed vulnerabilities in the federal cybersecurity database. Cameras can be physically hacked in 30 seconds. Officer passwords found for sale on the dark web.
El Paso PD's own transparency portal lists a Harris County commissioner's office — not a law enforcement agency — as having access to our camera data. No explanation has been given. ICE's own policy requires audit logs go to ICE, not to local police. EPPD cannot independently verify who has searched our data.
In February 2026, Flock rewrote its Terms of Service with 147 changes — including deleting the clause that said they would not sell customer data. Any renewal would be signed under these new terms. El Paso residents have a right to know what they say.
El Paso paid $702,500 in grant money for 150 cameras — less than $4,700 per camera per year — to photograph every vehicle in a major city around the clock. Flock Safety is valued at $7.5 billion with $950 million in venture capital. Those numbers do not add up unless the cameras are not the product. You are.
Flock's own patent (US11416545B1) describes AI that classifies pedestrians, bicyclists, and animals — and explicitly describes face recognition query capability. Flock publicly states they do not use facial recognition. Their federal patent filing says otherwise. El Paso should know which capabilities are active in our deployment.
Texas has no state law governing how ALPR data must be stored, who can access it, or how long it can be kept. Multiple bills have been introduced in Austin — all died in committee. El Paso residents' only protection is the contract — the same contract Flock rewrote in February 2026 to remove the data-sale prohibition.
The Texas Department of Public Safety launched an investigation into Flock Safety over the company's private security license — which is required to legally operate in Texas. The status of that investigation has not been publicly resolved. El Paso should not renew a contract with a vendor under active state investigation.
"If you really read the Flock contract, data will not be shared unless required by law. Can we agree on this? That's where the back door can be opened." — Rep. Limón voted for contract cancellation. She deserves community support.
"We support El Paso PD having effective public safety tools. We are calling for the removal of this specific vendor — and any like it — that profits from El Paso residents' data."— DeFlock El Paso
More than 30 cities since January 2025. El Paso can join them.
No. We support El Paso PD having effective public safety tools. We are calling for the removal of this specific vendor — one with documented security failures, a quietly rewritten contract, a history of enabling unauthorized federal data access, and a patent that contradicts its own marketing claims. Good policing deserves a trustworthy vendor. Flock is not that vendor.
They can. But evidence gathered through a compromised system can be thrown out in court — as happened in Norfolk, Virginia, where a federal judge ruled ALPR data collection without a warrant constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. We are protecting EPPD's ability to make cases stick by ensuring their tools are legally sound and properly secured.
El Paso PD says no. But ICE's own Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA-039) requires audit logs of all ALPR queries to be provided to ICE — not to local police. EPPD cannot independently verify who has searched El Paso's data. In other cities, ICE accessed Flock data for extended periods without the local police department's knowledge. El Paso is a border city. We deserve more than a verbal assurance.
The initial deployment was grant-funded. But the grant covers hardware — not the ongoing data rights Flock retains, not the subscription costs of future renewals, and not the legal and financial liability if El Paso continues using a vendor under Texas DPS investigation. The cost of a data breach or legal challenge could far exceed the original grant.
Cancel the contract on May 16 and do not renew it. If the council refuses, these are the minimum conditions we demand before any renewal is signed — and we will be watching.
Contact your city representative now. It takes 5 minutes. The contract expiration is the only leverage we have.
Contact Your Representative →Despite concerns from Reps. Canales and Limón, the council voted against the cancellation proposal. The contract still expires May 16 — the fight is not over.
Read more →Any renewal would be signed under terms that no longer prohibit Flock from selling customer data. El Paso residents deserve to read the new terms before council votes.
See the facts →Questions about whether Flock holds the private security license required to legally operate in Texas — directly affecting the standing of El Paso's contract.
Read more →