Marietta council turns down Flock license-plate cameras

Marietta's City Council has said no to Flock Safety license-plate cameras, the same kind of system the Cooke County Sheriff's Office uses in its investigations. Council members voted 6–0 against proceeding on Aug. 20, according to the city's official minutes.

The minutes record the council declining a proposed engagement with the company. They do not show the city ending a contract it already held. Before the vote, citizens put questions about the cameras to council members and Police Chief Harris, the minutes state. The record does not say what residents asked or whether any of them objected to surveillance or the gathering of data.

The decision came nine days after the council set the matter aside. At its Aug. 11 meeting, all six members present voted to table the Flock item, according to the meeting packet.

Cooke County has gone the other way. The sheriff's office says on its website that it uses Flock to look into past incidents. The sheriff's office also says Flock provides real-time alerts involving wanted suspects, stolen vehicles and missing people. The sheriff's page links to a public usage portal and to the county's plate-reader policy. The published Chapter 32 policy lists a July 1, 2026, issue date and Sheriff Ray Sappington's approval.

Grant records also tie the county to Flock. In July 2025, county investigator Nick McGregor asked a Texas Department of Motor Vehicles grant committee for about $66,000. He described a request to continue five cameras, add six new ones and buy two mobile speed trailers, according to the hearing transcript. A TxDMV purchase order documents a $66,292 award for the Sept. 1, 2025, to Aug. 31, 2026, grant period. The order is a grant award, not a measure of the county's total spending with the vendor.

Oklahoma City renewed its own Flock agreement on Aug. 18, two days before Marietta's vote, and extended it through June 2027. The city says it deletes plate records after a week unless images are saved for an active criminal case. It also says its agreement bars federal agencies from direct access. City officials credit the cameras with helping recover 1,280 stolen vehicles and locate 210 missing people. Those are the city's own operating results, not a measured effect on crime.

How long records stay on file depends on who holds them. Bexar County keeps vehicle data for 30 days, according to its policy page, while the log identifying which users searched the system is kept indefinitely. Flock says in its FAQ that each customer sets its own retention period under its policies and applicable law. On Aug. 13, the company said it introduced a seven-day default for new law-enforcement customers and made multifactor authentication mandatory.

The issue has also reached Congress. H.R. 10807, introduced Oct. 13, would bar federal funding for automated mass-surveillance systems, including license-plate readers. It would also require federally funded systems to be removed within 30 days of enactment. The measure is proposed legislation and has not been enacted.