The Pflugerville City Council has delayed a decision on whether to continue using Flock Safety license plate-reading cameras as privacy and data-sharing concerns continue to draw scrutiny.
Council members were scheduled Tuesday to consider a new two-year, $175,000 contract with Flock Safety but pulled the item from the agenda. The city currently has 28 Flock cameras positioned throughout Pflugerville.
The cameras automatically photograph license plates and other vehicle information that can be searched by law enforcement. Critics have raised concerns about who can access the information and how data collected in Pflugerville could potentially be shared with other agencies.
The proposed contract includes additional restrictions on the use of Pflugerville’s data, including language preventing it from being used to train artificial intelligence models. Privacy advocates, however, argue questions remain about how information could be shared between law enforcement agencies.
Several other Central Texas governments have already moved away from Flock. Austin, San Marcos, and Hays County have ended agreements with the company amid concerns about data sharing and the potential use of information for immigration enforcement.
Pflugerville officials are expected to take up the proposed contract again in two weeks.
