Gov. Abbott blocks funding in Texas for Flock cameras as bipartisan fury brews

https://archive.ph/yqr11

The automated license plate readers aren’t popular with the public. Politicians are catching on.

Republicans and Democrats once praised Flock Safety as a protection tool for American communities. Now politicians across the political spectrum are turning against the mass-surveillance technology.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) froze state spending this week on the shoebox-size cameras that have proliferated across the nation.

The flow of taxpayer money halted just before the Texas Tribune published an investigation probing how one state agency poured at least $30 million into expanding the reach of the controversial automated license plate scanners.

“There is a crackdown across Texas,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement.