Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo wants the county's 480-camera Flock surveillance program frozen until commissioners add privacy safeguards to the $868,975 contract.

Hidalgo called for a special Commissioners Court meeting in a Substack post Saturday, Sept. 5, Click2Houston reported. She outlined three steps: produce a clear summary of the county's automated license plate reader (ALPR) contracts, hold a public discussion with privacy experts, and stop the program until oversight provisions are written into the deal.

"The members who forced the item through owe the public answers to these questions," Hidalgo wrote.

The move follows months of escalating pressure over how the Harris County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) uses Flock Safety's license plate readers. HCSO manages 20 Flock networks with 480 cameras across the county. Some of those cameras are in Spring-area neighborhoods, owned by municipal utility districts and homeowner associations that designated HCSO as their system administrator.

Commissioners renewed the one-year Flock contract on May 28, covering June 6, 2026, through June 5, 2027. The vote was 4-0, with Hidalgo abstaining, according to her account.

She said the contract passed without privacy parameters or oversight requirements. Commissioners intended to add those provisions later, she said, but none had been adopted as of her Sept. 5 post.

The call for a special session is the latest turn in a dispute that has drawn residents to the courthouse. Dozens rallied against the cameras at the Aug. 17 Commissioners Court meeting, Houston Public Media reported. Christopher Rivera, senior advocacy manager at the Texas Civil Rights Project, told the crowd the county had failed to deliver promised protections.

In August, HCSO suspended three deputies' access to the Flock system and launched administrative reviews after questions about their use of the technology, KHOU reported. The sheriff's office also began requiring deputies to enter a case code before running plate searches and activated a new auditing tool to flag potential misuse.

Hidalgo acknowledged that HCSO "has acknowledged the need for stronger governance and has disciplined officers who abused the Flock camera system." But she said discussions about the program are happening behind closed doors and should be public.

The Houston Police Department is also investigating certain officers' use of the Flock system for potential policy violations, according to Click2Houston. HPD has not said how many officers are under review but placed some accounts on hold during its audit.

Commissioner Rodney Ellis said in a Sept. 3 statement that he shares residents' concerns and that his office is working on "a path forward." Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who voted to renew the contract, said at the May 28 meeting that he has "great confidence that this tool is used for the maximum benefit of our community."

No date has been set for the special meeting. Removing the cameras entirely would be complicated because most are owned by MUDs and neighborhood groups, not by the county, meaning each owner would have to agree to end its Flock contract.