Bowie council rejects highway camera deal as Flock readers spread through Texoma

By GvilleTX Newsroom

License plate reader camera programs appear in a string of Texoma-area public records, and one city in the region has now rejected a camera placement deal. The Bowie City Council voted 4-2 on July 28, 2026, against authorizing its police chief to enter a Texas Department of Transportation multiple-use agreement for automated license-plate-recognition cameras in TxDOT right-of-way, according to video of the meeting. In Cooke County, the sheriff's office says it uses Flock Safety technology.

The Cooke County Sheriff's Office describes two uses on its page at the county website: searching vehicle records after an incident, and real-time alerts when a passing plate matches a hotlist. Stolen vehicles, wanted people, catalytic converter theft and missing-person cases appear on the agency's list of applications. The same page presents the work as evidence-gathering that does not compromise individual privacy, and it directs residents to the department's policy and usage-statistics materials.

The contract behind that program moved through Commissioners Court more than a year ago. An item on the Feb. 10, 2025, agenda asked the court to authorize the county judge to sign with Flock Safety for high-speed license-plate-recognition cameras and equipment for the sheriff's department. It sat on the consent agenda, which the county's own agenda defines as routine, non-controversial business that can be handled in a single vote.

State records document more spending ahead. A Texas Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority board transcript shows the Cooke County Sheriff's Office recommended for $66,292 in fiscal 2026, the Collinsville Police Department for $29,600 and the Wichita Falls Police Department for $254,166. The authority's FY2026 grant listing names the projects as Cooke County's Flock Safety Development Program, Collinsville's Flock Safety Cameras and Wichita Falls' Project Overwatch.

Bowie, in neighboring Montague County, had been moving the same way. Council minutes from April 14, 2026, show members approved applying for a 2026 Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority grant that the police chief described as funding six Flock cameras, with the city covering 20 percent. The placement question reached the agenda three months later. Speakers at the July 28 meeting objected on the record, invoking the Fourth Amendment, privacy in public spaces, mass surveillance and risks they attributed to Flock cameras, the meeting video shows.

The police chief told the council at that meeting that the Montague County sheriff's office and the Department of Public Safety already run Flock cameras in the county, and that Bowie's six would add to that network. The 4-2 vote came after the public discussion.

The records verified for this report did not include a primary account of a license plate camera damaged in Cooke County or elsewhere in Texoma. Outside the region, the Burnet County Sheriff's Office posted that its fixed Flock cameras were removed after two incidents of damage to camera poles.