The El Paso City Council is preparing to take decisive action to eliminate automated license plate readers from city streets. During its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15, municipal lawmakers are scheduled to review and approve a pair of comprehensive proposals that would mandate the citywide removal of all Flock cameras while barring the local government from entering into future contracts for automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology.
If enacted, the measures will formally dismantle the network of artificial intelligence-powered cameras currently installed throughout El Paso. The legislative push represents a major shift in the border city's approach to municipal monitoring and public surveillance technology, setting the stage for an orderly phase-out of the devices across all local neighborhoods and corridors.
Flock cameras are specialized, AI-driven automated license plate reading systems designed and manufactured by the technology vendor Flock Safety. Widely utilized by police departments and local governments across the United States, the fixed devices are built to automatically capture, process, and catalog vehicle license plates and related travel data in real time.
The city’s move to banish the technology follows recent high-level administrative action taken at the state level. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a formal directive requiring all state agencies to immediately halt funding for Flock cameras, a decision that created immediate operational and budgetary hurdles for local entities utilizing state support for the systems.
In the immediate wake of Governor Abbott’s funding cut, the El Paso Police Department announced that the loss of state financial backing effectively brought local usage of the Flock camera network to an end. That administrative shutdown opened the door for city lawmakers to formalize the end of the program through binding municipal policy.
The two proposals pending before the City Council were authored and introduced by City Representatives Josh Acevedo and Chris Canales. In official agenda documentation prepared for the upcoming meeting, the two representatives laid out a dual strategy aimed at both clearing existing hardware from public roadways and preventing similar surveillance tools from taking their place.
Under the first proposal, the city manager will be directed to ensure the complete removal of all ALPR cameras located within the city of El Paso within a 60-day timeframe. The resolution provides a firm deadline to guarantee that the hardware is taken down promptly following the council's vote.
The removal order is designed to be comprehensive and applies regardless of which entity holds legal ownership of the physical equipment. Under the terms of the proposal, cameras owned by Flock Safety, units owned directly by the City of El Paso, and devices belonging to third-party entities are all subject to the mandatory 60-day removal timeline.
To ensure the extraction is carried out efficiently, the proposal grants broad operational discretion to the city manager. The directive authorizes the city manager either to oversee the physical dismantling and removal of the equipment by municipal workers or to coordinate the removal logistics directly with Flock Safety or another designated third party.
The second resolution sponsored by Acevedo and Canales addresses long-term procurement policy. This measure explicitly directs the city manager to refrain from entering into, executing, renewing, or extending any municipal contracts with Flock Safety or any competing automated license plate reader vendor, unless granted specific permission through subsequent City Council action.
In documents accompanying Tuesday’s agenda, Acevedo and Canales clarified the broader rationale behind the contractual freeze. The representatives emphasized that the policy is designed to prevent the city administration from simply replacing the discontinued Flock network with an alternative vendor or a substantially similar fixed surveillance system without explicit council authorization.
The restriction is tailored to target fixed camera systems that automatically record passing vehicle license plates and then transmit, process, store, or share that information across networked surveillance databases. By targeting the networked architecture of the systems, the policy seeks to prevent widespread automated vehicular tracking across the municipality.
Despite the broad ban on stationary roadside cameras, the proposal outlines specific exemptions for certain operational uses. The restrictions will not apply to handheld license plate reader units or mobile systems mounted directly on official vehicles, allowing select law enforcement tools to remain unaffected by the stationary camera ban.
The measure also establishes explicit carve-outs for administrative and regulatory systems that serve functions outside of general street surveillance. Under the proposed rules, automated plate readers used specifically for municipal parking enforcement, secure facility access control, and highway toll collection operations are fully exempt from the prohibition.
Tuesday’s anticipated vote by the El Paso City Council will establish the legal framework needed to initiate the physical removal process and close the door on future ALPR vendor agreements. Once the council adopts the items, city management will be tasked with executing the directive within the designated 60-day window.
The coordinated legislative push marks a definitive turning point for automated surveillance infrastructure in El Paso. By combining a strict timeline for equipment removal with an ongoing prohibition on new ALPR contracts, the City Council is poised to fully eliminate fixed Flock cameras from the city's public landscape.
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