El Paso Bars New Deals for Fixed License Plate Cameras Without Council Approval

El Paso's City Council voted Oct. 13 to stop the city manager from signing, renewing or extending any deal for fixed, networked automated license plate reader cameras, whether the vendor is Flock Safety or anyone else.

The measure came from a motion the council made on Sept. 15, according to the city's legislative record, which shows it passed.

What the resolution does

The limit covers fixed cameras only. It does not apply to handheld or vehicle-mounted readers, or to systems used for parking, access control or toll collection, KFOX14 reported.

City Rep. Chris Canales, who represents Downtown and West El Paso, said the point is to keep the decision in elected hands. "Anything to bring back that technology, either by Flock or by a different provider, would have to come through approval of the city council," he said.

How El Paso got here

The council's position has shifted quickly. In March, it voted 6-2 to keep its Flock cameras, according to KFOX14. Then police stopped using the cameras after a state funding freeze. Last month, the council voted unanimously to remove them within 60 days and asked staff to come back with the resolution passed this week.

Police Chief Peter Pacillas has warned that losing the cameras will slow investigations. He pointed to the risk of having someone "who is potentially still in the community that had committed a capital murder."

What it means

Both sides of this debate have a point. Police say license plate cameras help them find stolen cars, missing people and suspects, and El Paso's chief says losing them will slow investigations. They also log the movements of law-abiding people, and the rules on who can see that data and for how long are often unclear to the public.

El Paso's answer is not a ban on every reader. It is a requirement that any return of fixed cameras come back to the council in public. That is a sound principle for any surveillance tool. Residents should know what is watching them, and the people they elect should have to answer for it.

The question is playing out across Texas. Laredo left Flock out of its federal police grant application, and Dock Line has reported on Harris County and Conroe.

Hero photo: Quintin Soloviev via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped and resized.