Austin, TX Flock Contract

Who approved this?

Approved by City Council.

Austin's automated license plate reader program ended when the contract lapsed on June 30, 2025, after City Manager T.C. Broadnax withdrew the renewal item rather than let it go to a council vote. The City of Austin's regular council minutes for June 5, 2025 record item 67, a resolution to continue the ALPR program with safeguards, policies and procedures for Austin Police Department use, as withdrawn. Broadnax told the June 4 work session he appreciated the department's presentation and was sensitive to community concerns and outstanding questions from council members. KUT reports 40 fixed cameras across the city plus roughly 500 cameras mounted on police vehicles, and, reading the May 2025 City Auditor report, that between 10 and 20 percent of license plate searches in the database carried no clear reason or case number, contrary to the council resolution. The audit itself reports about 117 million scans, more than 16,000 alerts, 228 arrests, about 133 prosecutions, 6 documented data shares and 24 plates approved for the hotlist, and it flags expansive language and unclear definitions in the Flock Safety contract. The council authorized the program by Resolution 20220915-056 on September 15, 2022, cut data retention to 7 days by Resolution 20230608-085 on June 8, 2023, and approved a trial extension by Resolution 20250327-103 on March 27, 2025. No document states a contract amount. An earlier version of this page said the audit found more than 20 percent of searches lacked justification; the published audit states no such figure, and KUT gives a range of 10 to 20 percent.