League City voters reject continued use of Flock cameras

Voters in the Houston-area suburb of League City rejected the city’s continued use of Flock cameras in a referendum Tuesday.

Proposition A asked voters to decide whether the League City Police Department could continue using 55 Flock cameras along public roads to collect data on every passing vehicle — including license plate numbers, make, model, paint color and other identifiable characteristics like dents and bumper stickers.

Of the 46,400 ballots cast on the proposition, just under 54% favored removing the cameras, according to the Galveston County elections site, with all precincts reporting.

The devices will be removed or have bags placed over them within 72 hours of the election results being certified.

The ballot item, initially intended as a way to gauge public sentiment about the cameras, describes Proposition A as nonbinding. But the City Council approved a second resolution in mid-October that pledged to remove the cameras if voters rejected them.

The referendum is the first of its kind in Texas allowing voters to decide whether the increasingly controversial devices can be used by law enforcement. Kyle and Laredo voters will have the chance to weigh in next May, but those votes will be nonbinding.

Voters in York, Maine, also voted Tuesday on a similar proposition placed on the ballot by a citizen-led petition. While York paused use of their Flock cameras until after the election, League City was still using their system up to the vote.

Estimates place roughly 13,000 Flock cameras across Texas as of late August, but that number has declined in the months since as several cities and counties pulled out of contracts with Flock Safety and turned off their cameras.