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North Richland Hills, a Fort Worth suburb, quoted a privacy group $2.3 million for records on how its police use Flock plate cameras. Because each Texas city prices these requests itself, whether the public can check police searches comes down to a local estimate of staff time.
Reality
Two Republican states moved against automated license plate readers inside three weeks, one revoking permits it had already granted and one cutting off state money, while Flock Safety's cancellation count keeps climbing.
Reality
August's cancellations ran roughly 45 times Flock's prior monthly rate, and the objection Los Angeles put in writing was contractual, a clause giving the vendor ownership of the plate data it collects.
Reality
The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority routed at least $30 million in insurance-fee grants to local police before the order, and the governor's office says most of the remaining camera money is federal.
Reality
Four days earlier, Texas froze the car-insurance fee that paid for at least 3,200 Flock cameras. Neither state needed its legislature, which says something about install bases built on permits and grants.
Reality
The comptroller's office once scored the 2027-2028 cost of the exemption at $180 million and now scores it above $3 billion. The chair of Senate Finance says she may file to repeal it when the session opens in January.
Reality