Kyle voters could decide future of Flock cameras

Last week, the Kyle City Council rejected a motion that would have ended its contract with Flock Cameras, but now the decision could be in voters' hands. Fox 7's Marco Bittner joining us live in studio with more on the future of the license plate readers. Marco? Well, because privacy and data concerns continue to grow around Flock Cameras, we've seen a long list of central Texas cities which have recently cut ties with the company. Now one Kyle City Councilwoman is Across central Texas, cities cutting ties with Flock Cameras. I move to adopt Resolution R-2026-134, which terminates any and all contracts the city has with Flock Safety. Liberty Hill and Bastrop, the latest to do so, and with the pushback against the surveillance company continuing, they might not be the last. If they have identified those issues and they have all seen it and they've all recognized it, I don't think it's hard for us to do the same. Claudia Zapata is the lone council member which voted in support of ending the city of Kyle's relationship with Flock. She brought forward her privacy concerns at last week's city council meeting. According to Zapata, the city has three contracts with Flock, from 2023, 2024, and 2025. That provides 47 cameras and two drones at a cost of over $420,000 a year. Zapata claims at least two of those contracts can be terminated by not funding them in the next city budget. I get that some places have misused it. For a place that has not misused Flock, why so many people are against it? But not everyone was on board with Zapata. Other city council members defending the technology, while Police Chief Jeff Barnett provided examples of how the cameras had helped Kyle PD, especially in the case of a five-month old that was left in a stolen car. In that split second of time, a person came along, a very dangerous person, and came along and stole that vehicle with that infant in the backseat. License plate readers played a significant role into us quickly locating that vehicle. Barnett says that rail guards are in place to prevent officers from abusing the system, but Zapata's concern is how outside agencies are using the city's data. From January 1st to March 19th, our own internal logs showed that over 3,000 agencies across 40 states entered our system and ran searches. And out of those 1.5 million searches, only 2,888 of them were made by KPD. But Zapata's resolution to cancel the city's contract will be shot down in a six-to-one vote. But the role of Flock may now lie in voters' hands. The council agreeing unanimously to consider a non-binding referendum on next year's ballot, meaning it could be up to voters to weigh the future of Flock cameras. What they decide in May could decide what sort of future Flock has along Kyle's streets. Now, a non-binding referendum is a public vote which would be asking voters their opinion on Flock cameras. And even if a majority of Kyle voters say that they didn't approve of Flock in May, it doesn't mean that the city will be forced to take any action. Alec. Now, Margot, you mentioned that the city council is preparing to approve a budget for next year, 2027. And that includes, of course, Flock, as you've mentioned. But do the community members have a chance to weigh in before that happens? Yeah, so Tuesday will be the last city of Kyle city council meeting before that budget is potentially approved. And the community will have a chance to come out and voice their opinions. That's what city councilman Claudia Zapata is encouraging before they make any final decisions and that budget is approved, Alec. Marco Bittner, live in studio. Thank you.