More of an administrative matter than anything else, but potentially with real consequences.
State troopers are investigating the company behind thousands of license plate-reading cameras used by police agencies and private groups across the Houston region, over claims the company operated at various points without required licenses, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, which issues private security licenses, began scrutinizing Flock Safety’s license in August, officials said. At the time, the license was set to expire in October. Before the expiration, DPS suspended the license because the company did not maintain proof of required liability insurance.
State officials lifted the suspension on Nov. 12 after processing the company’s liability insurance. By then, however, the private security license had expired. DPS did not issue a new license until Dec. 4, when it granted Flock a license valid through Sept. 30, 2026, officials said.
Now, state troopers have opened an investigation into Flock related to broader licensing issues, officials said. From 2019 to 2024, the company operated without a required private investigator license, a lapse that led the state to issue a cease-and-desist letter in 2024. State investigators declined to provide further information, citing the ongoing investigation.
A spokesperson for Flock Safety, in response to earlier questions about whether the company was operating without a license, called the issue an “administrative error” that wouldn’t affect operations moving forward.
When asked about the investigation, Flock officials responded with a statement that didn’t directly address the investigation.
“Flock initiated the required filing to renew this license in July 2025,” officials wrote. “Due to various administrative issues in the review process unrelated to Flock’s operations in the state, the application was not finalized until the first week of December.”
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Officials with the Houston Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the state investigation, or whether it had affected how they were using Flock cameras in their investigations.
An earlier Chronicle investigation found police in the region were using the surveillance tool to track the movements of any vehicle, while justifying their work less and less. In a growing number of logs investigators make when using the technology, police aren’t listing a reason for the search.
Some civil rights groups and activists have voiced concern about how the technology stores data and intrudes on peoples’ privacy, given that fact, since it is gathering location data on vehicles that have not been tied to a crime.
“Flock’s lack of a private investigator license presents substantial risk to past, current and future criminal prosecutions across Texas,” argued David Moore, an online activist against Flock cameras. “Evidence collected by Flock … cameras could be adjudicated to be illegally obtained and thus subjected to being excluded via a motion to suppress.”
See here, here, and here for more on Flock and its uses, many of which are nefarious and kept out of the public eye. If they end up getting into hot water because of not maintaining proof of liability insurance it would be both a serious disruption of their “service” and also possibly the least serious way in which they could be brought to heel. It would still be something, and as noted it could end up in a bunch of arrests and convictions being challenged. Always stay on top of your paperwork, kids. We’ll see where this goes.