TL;DR: On August 28, 2026, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to stop funding Flock Safety cameras, as The Texas Tribune was preparing to publish an investigation showing that a little-known state agency had turned a $1 auto insurance fee into at least 3,200 Flock cameras. Three days later, on August 31, the Florida Department of Transportation issued a memo announced by Governor Ron DeSantis ordering every automated license plate reader off state highway right-of-way within 30 days, revoking all previously approved permits and barring new ones. Both moves came out of executive offices rather than legislatures, and neither one reaches the city streets, county roads, and private parking lots where most of the cameras sit.
Texas Cut the Money the Day the Newspaper Published
Abbott gave the order on a Thursday night and his spokesman confirmed it the next day, as the Tribune was preparing to publish an investigation into how a state agency had devoted at least $30 million to building up the state Flock network through grants to local police departments [3][2].
“To the extent that cities get any funding for those cameras, most of it comes from the federal government. To the extent any funding comes from Texas agencies, those agencies are clarifying that those funds cannot be used for Flock cameras,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement shared first with the Tribune [3]. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which wrote up both state actions on September 2, described the Texas move as banning state agencies from spending public funds on Flock cameras [1].
Abbott framed the decision around misuse. In a Friday morning radio interview with Glenn Beck, he pointed to a Lufkin police officer facing 100 counts of misusing official information for allegedly using the area Flock cameras to surveil 11 people for more than a year [3][2]. “This is something that is easily containable, easily controllable, and we’re ensuring that whether it be through criminal crackdowns, whether it be through cancellation of contracts, whatever the case may be, Flock cameras are being reduced dramatically,” Abbott said. “They’re going to be required to be used responsibly if they’re used at all” [3]. The Tribune reported that at least six police departments and sheriff’s offices across Texas had announced in the previous month that officers were being placed on leave, investigated, or criminally charged [3].
Flock said in a statement about the pause that it supports “thoughtful legislation” with privacy guardrails that preserve officers’ use of the product for public safety [3].
A One Dollar Insurance Fee Built the Network
In 2023, the Texas Legislature unanimously passed a law adding $1 to auto insurance policies to fight catalytic converter theft. The bill was named for Harris County Deputy Darren Almendarez, who was shot to death after interrupting catalytic converter thieves in a grocery store parking lot. It made no reference to license plate readers [2].
The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, whose board is mostly appointed by Abbott, turned that fee into at least 3,200 Flock cameras, the Tribune found. The agency awarded no fewer than 95 grants to help police buy and maintain about 2,000 cameras, and put another $15.9 million toward almost 1,200 more for the Texas Department of Public Safety. In early August it approved $3 million more to help DPS install 583 cameras along Texas tollways over the following year [2].
Grants ranged from $7,000 for two cameras in Bellmead, near Waco, to almost $1.7 million for 201 cameras in Dallas. The 165 cameras in Laredo and the 150 in El Paso were entirely subsidized. The agency does not break out how much of its grant money went to Flock, so the Tribune reconstructed the figure from the authority’s meeting records and from documents and discussions at 101 city councils and county commissions. The real total is likely higher, because 124 grants lack clear public documentation of what was purchased [2].
The lawmakers who created the fee say nobody told them what it would buy. State Senator Carol Alvarado, the bill’s author, said surveillance cameras were never discussed when the bill was considered. “I did not have that in mind when we passed the bill,” said Alvarado, D-Houston [2]. Representative Brian Harrison, a Midlothian Republican who voted for it, put it harder: “In a million years, I never could have even contemplated that this would be used to fund what is effectively warrantless surveillance” [2]. Representative Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, put it in constitutional terms. “The sheer volume of information captured is not something that is entertained, in my view, by the Fourth Amendment,” he told the Tribune [2].
Miguel Rodriguez, the authority’s chair and the Laredo police chief, said at an August 2023 meeting that he hoped to use the fee proceeds to “cover the entire state” with cameras [2]. In an April conversation about the DPS contract, he described using state police cameras to reach jurisdictions that had rejected Flock on their own: “I think that if for whatever reason you are within those jurisdictions that do not want Flock, let’s get together with DPS, [so] that, you know, we can put those in state right-of-way. And there’s nothing that they can tell us” [2].
DeFlock, the crowdsourced camera-mapping project, has identified about 13,000 Flock cameras in Texas. By that count, the insurance fee paid for one in four of them [2].
Florida Gave the Cameras Thirty Days
Three days after Abbott acted, Florida came at the same network from a different angle. On August 31, the Florida Department of Transportation issued a memo, announced by DeSantis, ordering the removal of all ALPRs from the right-of-way on state highways within 30 days. The order revokes all previously approved installation permits and bars transportation officials from issuing future ones [1][4].
FDOT officials stated that “the recent exponential increase in deployments along our roadways, coupled with concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life” [1].
WCTV reported that the order covers what DeSantis called the state highway system, including interstates such as I-10 and I-75, and that if the cameras are not removed from state right-of-way within 30 days the state will take them down itself [4].
DeSantis grounded the decision in the same misuse problem Abbott cited. “But, you also have to say, okay, how could this be misused? And how could a private company misuse the data, but also law enforcement? We know there was an officer in Florida who was using the LPR data to track like an ex-girlfriend or something like that,” he said [4]. That pattern is the one body-camera footage of a Florida deputy using ALPR tools to stalk a woman put on the record earlier this year.
Sheriff’s departments in Franklin, Liberty, and Putnam counties announced they were ending their own license plate reader programs after the order [4]. EFF wrote that a surge of local Florida governments canceled or paused vendor contracts in the days that followed [1].
What Neither Order Touches
The limits are not small print. In Florida, many ALPRs are not on state highways at all but sit on city streets, county roads, residential driveways, and shopping center parking lots, and the FDOT order does not touch any of them [1]. WCTV noted that the order applies only to the state highway system, so cameras can remain on city and county roads unless the legislature restricts them next year [4].
The Texas directive is narrower still. It leaves local agencies free to use city, county, federal, and private funds to install cameras [1]. Abbott’s own spokesperson said most of the money cities get for the cameras comes from the federal government, which the order does not reach [3].
The other limit is durability. WCTV reported that the Florida memo functions essentially as an executive order from the governor and could be revoked by whoever takes over the position in January, which is why DeSantis called for a legislative solution next spring [4].
What to Watch
Whether the Florida cameras actually come down on schedule. FDOT said it will remove them itself if they are still standing in state right-of-way after 30 days, which turns an announcement into a test of enforcement [4].
Whether Texas turns a funding pause into a statute. Harrison and Little both said they intend to file bills next legislative session banning the devices, on the view that the cameras violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches [2]. Any such bill would have to deal with the workaround Rodriguez described out loud, putting DPS cameras in state right-of-way to cover cities that voted the technology down [2].
Whether the federal money keeps flowing. The Texas order is aimed at state agency funds, and Abbott’s office pointed at Washington as the larger source for cities [3]. In July, Republican Representative Keith Self proposed legislation requiring federal agencies to obtain warrants before accessing Flock camera data [3].
Whether California follows. EFF called on Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Transportation to take similar steps, starting with removing the ALPRs that U.S. Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration have installed on California highways [1].
The local layer, which is where the volume is. Citing published metrics, EFF wrote that over the previous 30 days an average of three localities per day had halted contracts with Flock [1]. Both governors acted on the thin slice of that network they directly control. The rest of it is still a city council question.
Sources
- Electronic Frontier Foundation, Rindala Alajaji and Adam Schwartz: “Texas and Florida Step Back from ALPRs” (September 2, 2026)
- The Texas Tribune, Ayden Runnels and Alex Ford: “Lawmakers added $1 to Texans’ car insurance policies. That money paid for thousands of Flock cameras.” (August 28, 2026)
- The Texas Tribune, Ayden Runnels: “Gov. Abbott blocks state agencies from spending money on Flock cameras” (August 28, 2026)
- WCTV, Matt Hoffmann: “Gov. DeSantis bans Flock cameras from state highways” (August 31, 2026)