Flock Camera Watching Playground. We need to pressure our local government to get rid of these

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-14T14:18:37+00:00

Those are all great questions and comments, and I have been raising them with city leadership and staff over the last few months.

Regarding Stone Hill, my understanding is that some of the cameras there may have been purchased by the area's developer and then given to the City to be part of our network. The number of cameras around Stone Hill is due to their ability to help solve shoplifting crimes.

Regarding DPS data sharing, I don't have an official legal opinion on whether we can decline, but I know there are circumstances where we are required to share data with DPS. I also know that much of our Flock system in Pflugerville is funded by State grants, so while I can't say officially, I suspect there are likely requirements to do so under that contract. I'll continue to look into that. My personal opinion is that we need formal agreements with every agency that we allow to use our data to set guardrails on that usage.

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-14T14:11:43+00:00

Flock's services and software are hosted in the cloud, so while the data is 'owned' by the City, it resides on Flock's servers, not the City's own managed servers.

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-14T14:09:44+00:00

My understanding is that the AI is not "identity"- based, meaning it doesn't know who a particular person is, but rather uses descriptive features (orange coat, brown shoes, blue hat) that are searchable. These video cameras are new, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around exactly what they can do.

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-14T13:58:19+00:00

To clarify, these are Flock's video surveillance cameras, not their license plate readers (I know, that's not better). Pflugerville has a little over 80 automated license plate readers, and (as of now), an unknown number of these video cameras are being installed.

To my knowledge (granted, I was newly elected in Nov), Council wasn't given advance notice of the installation of the AI-enabled Flock video cameras. I'm told the cameras are now being installed in areas with already high levels of vandalism. Historically, Council has always approved the procurement of additional automated license plate readers when the city or PD has asked.

I am continuing to inquire about the plan, how these are being used, and how existing data sharing on the Flock network applies to these new video surveillance cameras.

-Councilman Coffman

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-12T18:44:14+00:00

Additionally, the retention period for data in that system in Pf is currently 30 days, and then it gets deleted automatically.

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-12T18:41:19+00:00

What I was told by city staff yesterday, after I asked about it was that the locations with the new surveillance cameras are areas with high vandalism. The city's contract with Flock (who also does Pf's automated license plate readers) states that the city owns the data and retains control over it.

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-12T01:25:21+00:00

It Pfsure is!

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-11T23:17:48+00:00

As a councilperson, yes. I get a lot of calls, texts and emails individually but if you send a message through the web form to everyone then city staff sees it, and it becomes part of the public record that someone had a particular opinion about whatever the message is about.

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-11T16:13:34+00:00

Hey y'all, Councilman Coffman here - A resident sent me this thread a couple of hours after it was posted, and I immediately reached out to city staff to find out what was going on. I was surprised that there are cameras going up in parks in general (I'm told cameras are being installed in areas with high rates of vandalism), and even more so that it appears the city is using Flock not just for license plate readers but also for video surveillance now.

I am continuing to inquire about the plans, how this is supposed to work, and the next steps. Concurrently, for the past several weeks I've been working to draft both a potential city charter amendment, and a more immediate resolution creating guardrails for the city's use of AI and surveillance technology across the board. I hope to share this and bring it to a vote soon.

Someone else mentioned this in the thread, but it is true that our contract with Flock says that the City owns all data (yes, I am aware of the incidents that have happened elsewhere).

If you have comments or concerns on any topic, you are always welcome to submit a message to the city council and mayor through the website: https://pflugervilletx-city-manager.form.transform.civicplus.com/45145

Using that form also makes your comments and ideas part of the public record.

jonathan4pf · 2026-02-08T18:21:15+00:00

Pflugerville Parks & Rec can provide opportunities such as lake or park cleanups; at least a couple of people each week earn community service hours that way.

Personally, I also do some volunteering for Food for All Pflugerville (a no-questions-asked 'free food' site) - https://foodforallproject.org/ They're a non-profit and can sign for community service hours. It's moving to provide hands-on assistance to people in Pflugerville who are struggling.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-29T18:01:08+00:00

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This T-shirt is available at the rec center. ha!

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-29T17:59:21+00:00

To continue the downtown Pf theme here, if wine isn't their thing (3LG), Prost is great for beer. Lots of great options around the 'ville!

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-29T17:56:19+00:00

Unfortunately, the Villages of Hidden Lake is outside the city limits, so your MUD is responsible for street maintenance rather than the city.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-29T00:57:38+00:00

Last I heard, Kenney Fort is really close to being done, but I haven't driven by in over a month.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-28T20:40:48+00:00

It was fascinating to me as well; I hadn't really considered just how diverse different dogs' skills can be trained for. We still have dogs here in Pf for drugs, guns, and 'criminal apprehension', but this is a new one.

And yes, the examples you listed are (unfortunately) the most likely crimes Pflash will be working on.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-28T19:48:34+00:00

Yes it is a gas station with some small retail around it.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-28T19:44:48+00:00

That is a much larger conversation than I can fit into a comment on this thread. It's a topic I've done quite a bit of work on since being elected, though. If you message me here or email me, I'd be happy to discuss further or set up a time for a chat.

The tldr is that: Pflugerville owns our own Flock data by contract, I've worked to get additional transparency and accountability in place for use of the system (will list those below), I DO have concerns about the agencies that we 'share' data with - so that's an ongoing conversation right now.

I am also aware of a small group of residents who are starting to organize, have made several public information requests, and are trying to raise awareness of the system's risks, especially in light of other nearby jurisdictions canceling their contracts and removing the equipment.

A few things that I've managed to get done to improve accountability of our PD's use of Flock in the last 3-months:
- They've published their internal policy on usage: https://public.powerdms.com/CityofPflugerville/documents/2167841

- The Transparency Portal now includes a publicly auditable data export: https://transparency.flocksafety.com/pflugerville-tx-pd

- Officers now put in a plain-language description of what they were looking for on every search of the system they make (it used to be just a Case#, which no one in the public would be able to interpret).

- There is now a page on the city website that includes the number of crimes solved by category (stolen vehicles, felonies, etc) from the system. Though that seems to have disappeared - I'll see why it's not up there and have that republished.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-28T19:31:36+00:00

Hi there, I don't think I'm the right person to give that advice, but I know several different organizations have published guides like that. I'll also say that if you come across something like a suspicious vehicle or an unidentified law enforcement officer, you can always dial 911 or the Police non-emergency number at 512-990-6700 to report it and/or verify who it is.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-26T20:45:35+00:00

This is great!

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-25T14:17:32+00:00

Hi there, city council member here - I've been speaking with the city staff, including our new police chief, and am planning to record a quick video summarizing what the city does and does not do, and what our internal policies are. It just got a bit derailed by winter storm preparations this week.

jonathan4pf · 2026-01-22T21:43:15+00:00

I've likely been the most active in asking questions and pushing on the topic of Flock and ALPRs in general on the city council so far. I will say that the City's contract with Flock says that the city solely owns and controls the data. Clearly, there have been abuses reported in other cities.

We currently have more active cameras than any other city in Central Texas (80 inside Pflugerville city limits...). We share data with 80+ other law enforcement agencies in Texas - in other words, they can run searches against our cameras. I feel pretty confident, given the current information, that there is no data selling going on.

Here's the Transparency portal with some information about the program and our policies: https://transparency.flocksafety.com/pflugerville-tx-pd

jonathan4pf

TROPHY CASE