Texas Comptroller Don Huffines signed an executive order on October 13 that forbids any future grant his office administers from buying, leasing or renewing contracts for automated license plate readers.
The order names Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions and Axon Enterprise directly, along with their affiliates and resellers. Any system that turns a plate or another image into machine-readable data now falls inside the ban, whatever a vendor calls it.
“The government has no business tracking where law-abiding Texans drive,” Huffines said, framing warrantless plate logging as a Fourth Amendment problem. Grantees must not obligate or spend award money on the equipment, and the restriction will be written into every relevant solicitation and agreement.
Why the wallet matters more than the rulebook
The comptroller’s grant stream is modest, but it sits beside a much larger pipeline. Texas agencies, including the Department of Public Safety, have relied on state programs to seed camera networks, and the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority helped install at least 3,200 Flock units statewide.
Some of that money came from a 2023 law adding $1 to every auto insurance policy to fight catalytic converter theft – a vehicle-crime fund now closed to plate readers.
Governor Greg Abbott has said most camera funding originates with the federal government and that Texas agencies are clarifying their own rules. The comptroller’s move narrows the remaining state path.
A policy fight turning into a procurement fight
Texas has already lost officers to misuse allegations, including a Lufkin case drawing 100 counts of misusing public information. Lawmakers in Washington are moving in parallel, with the Ban Flock Act and a separate House bill to strip federal funds from mass surveillance systems. Each new funding restriction turns the debate from principle into purchase orders.
