AI cameras are tracking cars across DFW. Here’s what Texas drivers should know
Your car could be photographed while you’re driving around North Texas, even if you haven’t broken any traffic laws.
That’s because police departments across the Dallas-Fort Worth area use automated license plate readers known as Flock cameras to collect information about vehicles and help investigate crimes.
At least 648 of the cameras have been mapped in Tarrant County alone, according to DeFlock, a project that tracks camera locations.
But what information can the cameras capture about your car? Can they see who’s driving? What happens to the data afterward?
Here’s what Texans should know.
What do Flock cameras do?
Flock cameras capture information about vehicles traveling on public roads. They can photograph license plates and identify details about a vehicle, including its make, model and color, according to Flock Safety.
Other visible features, like bike racks, trailers or toolboxes, can also be picked up to help police tell one vehicle from another, along with when and where the vehicle passed the camera.
Police can use that information to search for stolen vehicles, cars connected to active warrants, and vehicles connected to other crimes.
However, Flock Safety says the technology focuses on vehicles, not the people inside them.
The cameras don’t collect driver information or biometric data and don’t use facial recognition, according to the company.
Flock cameras also aren’t designed to detect speed or automatically issue speeding or red-light tickets.
What happens to the information collected by Flock cameras?
Information collected by Flock cameras is automatically deleted after 30 days by default, according to Flock Safety.
Until then, the police department using the cameras control who can search the system.
The information isn’t available in a public database, and each search is tied to the person who made it and recorded in a log for supervisors to review.
Police departments also set their own rules for sharing Flock camera information with others, according to the company.
