A signature petition in Lubbock seeks to “prohibit” Flock cameras in Lubbock.
If successful with 2,410 verified signatures or more before October 30, it would force the Lubbock City Council to consider an ordinance to stop the use of such cameras in Lubbock, including ALPR, or automated license plate readers.
The petition therefore goes beyond asking the City Council to impose additional restrictions on how Flock is used. If enacted as proposed, it would seek to eliminate the city’s use of the technology and prevent its future acquisition or operation.
The petition effort comes after the City Council heard directly from Lubbock Police Chief Seth Herman about the department’s use of the technology.
In his late August public announcement of his plan to begin a signature petition under the rules of the Lubbock Charter, Sanders said, “We’re gonna continue to hold them accountable to hold their feet to the fire.”
“Save Lubbock will continue to teach the City Council how they must operate when it comes to the citizens’ tax dollars. You have to come to us first. You have to let us vote on it and you have to make sure we’re involved in the planning. And if you don’t do that, we’ll petition you and we’ll make you have to go back to the drawing board,” Sanders said in a September 1 video update on social media.
Information on where to sign the petition is listed on the Save Lubbock website.
Chief Seth Herman defended the need for the cameras this month in front of the Lubbock City Council and promised there have been no documented cases of local officers abusing Flock for personal reasons.
Herman said, “Without these cameras and technology similar to that, we’re going to need a heck of a lot more officers. I’ll just be honest with you.”
About a week before that, Herman was on The Wake Up Call radio show with Benji Snead and said, “We had a teenager just a few weeks ago who had suicidal ideations, ran away from home. The only reason we found her was because of Flock.”
Herman said, “If you look at statewide the number of stolen vehicles that have been recovered since the inception of Flock, it’s increased by 75 to 80 percent.”
During the same radio show, Sheriff Kelly Rowe said, “We just got a total reversal from the state on purchasing them. The state’s been supportive for a number of years on providing us funding to put those into service.”
Rowe said getting rid of the camera system is a bad idea.
“That would be a monumental mistake given what those things have been able to provide for law enforcement since their inception,” Rowe said.
Lubbock’s Flock network
LubbockLights.com did some digging and found in Lubbock and Lubbock County there are 145 Flock cameras currently operational. Another 15 are either under repair or awaiting installation for a total of 160 such cameras – if the various systems operated by local law enforcement agencies are fully up and running.
Flock Safety Transparency Portal: View Lubbock Police Department’s Flock network sharing data
How they are used
LPD searches went from 49,008 for all of last year to 37,119 in only the first seven months of this year.
Flock use increased by more than 45 percent when comparing January through July of 2026 with the same period last year, according to Herman.
A little less than half of them are for stolen vehicles.
Less than a third are for wanted persons. Theft, assault and robbery rank third, fourth and fifth respectively as the most common reasons for LPD to access Flock.
Lubbock will spend more than $67,000 on Flock in the 2026/27 budget, according to comments made by Jarrett Atkinson, city manager.
Atkinson did not say if the expense is covered by state assistance. In previous years, it has been paid from the LPD asset forfeiture fund or the abandoned vehicle fund.
TAG spent $315,000 in the 2025/26 budget according to Jennifer Irlbeck, an attorney with the county’s civil division.
TAG also conducted 14,667 searches of the Flock cameras as of Irlbeck’s email to us on September 11.
Irlbeck said, “Flock camera searches have been key to solving several homicides, drive by shootings, robberies, human trafficking cases, and recovering and solving stolen vehicle cases. I am also aware of these cameras helping locate runaways and other missing persons.”
As for accountability, Irlbeck said, “Searches follow all state and federal laws on the use of sensitive law enforcement information. The user must input the reason for the search and a case number.”
Lubbock County law enforcement agencies previously conducted an internal manual audit of the use of the Flock system.
Now there’s an “audit assist” function on Flock. It automatically points out if one officer is the only one searching for a particular license plate.
“No improper or nefarious activity by Lubbock County law enforcement has been identified as a result of the manual weekly audits or the new audit assist function,” Irlbeck wrote.
Herman told the Council, when LPD reviewed Flock activity by its own officers, “None of them have been used for, as I would call it, ‘nefarious’ illegal activity.”
Auto Theft Task Force local policy
Lubbock County has more cameras than LPD. With that in mind,
LubbockLights.com asked the county if there was a written policy.
We acquired the LPR, or license plate recognition, policy of the South Plains Auto Theft Task Force.
The following is a portion of the policy that lays out generally what is and is not allowed:
A. General
- The use of the LPR system is restricted solely to law enforcement, public safety or for civil process by the South Plains Auto Theft Task Force, partner agencies or the State of Texas.
- The LPR system and associated equipment and databases are authorized for official purposes only. All system access requires a valid reason and is stored indefinitely. Misuse of the equipment and associated databases or data may be subject to sanctions and/or disciplinary action.
- The LPR system and LPR data and associated media are property of this agency and intended for use in conducting official business only with limited exceptions noted in this policy.
- The LPR system equipped on the South Plains Auto Theft Task Force or partner agency vehicles may be used for normal patrol functions or specifically used for special assignments.
- The LPR system will be positioned to collect license plate and vehicle description information.
- Prohibited uses of the LPR system include traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, usage based solely on protected class, such as race, sex, religion, or any personal use.
- The LPR system will not be used to collect gender or race data.
More on the signature petition
Save Lubbock, the same group that successfully gathered signatures to force Lubbock to consider a moratorium on data centers in the city limits, also began an effort to stop Flock and ALPR cameras.
Led by former mayoral candidate Stephen Sanders, the petition seeks to terminate contracts, remove the cameras, purge camera data and enact a permanent ban.
Save Lubbock is asking the Lubbock City Council to prohibit the acquisition, installation, operation and use of Flock Safety cameras and all Automated License Plate Reader, or ALPR, and optical vehicle tracking systems in the City of Lubbock.
According to the petition language, the proposed ordinance would:
- Prohibit the acquisition of Flock Safety cameras and other ALPR systems.
- Prohibit the installation and operation of those systems in Lubbock.
- Terminate existing contracts involving the technology.
- Remove existing cameras.
- Purge camera data held by the city.
- Establish a permanent prohibition on Flock and other automated license plate and optical vehicle tracking systems.
The petition therefore goes beyond asking the City Council to impose additional restrictions on how Flock is used. If enacted as proposed, it would seek to eliminate the city’s use of the technology and prevent its future acquisition or operation.
The petition effort comes after the City Council heard directly from Lubbock Police Chief Seth Herman about the department’s use of the technology.
In his late August public announcement of his plan to begin a signature petition under the rules of the Lubbock Charter, Sanders said, “We’re gonna continue to hold them accountable to hold their feet to the fire.”
“Save Lubbock will continue to teach the City Council how they must operate when it comes to the citizens’ tax dollars. You have to come to us first. You have to let us vote on it and you have to make sure we’re involved in the planning. And if you don’t do that, we’ll petition you and we’ll make you have to go back to the drawing board,” Sanders said in a September 1 video update on social media.
Information on where to sign the petition is listed on the Save Lubbock website.
Information about the petition and where to sign:
Visit Save Lubbock
The petition requires 2,410 verified signatures or more before October 30, according to the petition effort.
If enough signatures are verified, the initiative would move into the city’s citizen petition process and require the City Council to consider the proposed ordinance.
That does not mean the proposed ban automatically becomes law. The petition must first meet the city’s signature and procedural requirements before the council is required to act.
The petition effort follows Save Lubbock’s successful campaign to force consideration of a data center moratorium. In that case, the group submitted more than 3,000 signatures after the 2,410 signature threshold was required.
How it started
In August 2023, Philip Partin, administrator of the Texas Anti Gang Center in Lubbock, asked Lubbock County Commissioners for permission to purchase and use ALPR cameras.
There would be 77 total at that time, 61 for the Texas Anti Gang Center and 16 for South Plains Auto Theft Task Force, or SPATTF.
After a public discussion, commissioners approved a Flock contract. Budget documents indicated the cameras have been paid for with state grants.
LubbockLights.com searched City Council agendas for the word “Flock” and the earliest reference we found was July 9, 2024.
Police asked permission to participate with the Texas Anti Gang Center in the sharing of camera data. LPD would make sure its body camera video was available to TAG and SPATTF. These agencies would make sure their Flock camera data was available to LPD.
The item, along with several others, was approved with no discussion.
On October 22, 2024, LPD asked permission to spend $138,300 “seized funds” for Flock cameras. It was part of the council’s so called consent agenda, meaning it passed with other items without debate or discussion.
The council’s agenda item for that day said, “Using license plate recognition cameras with Vehicle Fingerprint technology, proprietary machine learning software, creates real time alerts and enables the Department to deter, as well as to solve crimes in the community.”
Abbott changes the state’s approach to Flock
The debate in Lubbock comes as Gov. Greg Abbott has taken steps to restrict the expansion and state funding of Flock cameras in Texas.
In late August, Abbott ordered state agencies to stop funding Flock cameras. The Texas Tribune reported that the order came after an investigation found that at least $30 million in state money had been used to help build Texas’ Flock network. Abbott’s spokesman said that while much local funding comes from the federal government, money coming from Texas agencies could no longer be used for Flock cameras.
Then, in September, Abbott directed the Texas Department of Transportation to stop issuing permits for new Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers along state roads. The Texas Tribune reported that the pause applies to new installations and agreements that had been approved but not yet installed, but does not remove cameras already installed along state rights of way.
The changes do not amount to a statewide ban. Existing cameras operated by local governments and law enforcement agencies can remain in use, and the Texas Department of Public Safety continues to operate an existing network.
Abbott has described the state’s actions as part of a broader effort to reduce Flock use while requiring responsible use of the technology.
That statewide shift provides a new backdrop for the debate now taking place in Lubbock.
Watch the October 22, 2024 City Council meeting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwcLcNjft84
Lubbock Police Department Flock Transparency Portal:
https://transparency.flocksafety.com/lubbock-tx-pd
