Documented Incident
North Richland Hills quotes $2.3 million for Flock records as Texas agencies limit disclosure
First reported: October 5, 2026 · 4 sources
The Fort Worth-area city of North Richland Hills invoiced an anti-surveillance advocate roughly $2.3 million, payable up front, for records about its Flock Safety cameras, citing $15-per-hour labor to search about a terabyte of communications on errors, misuse and effectiveness. The requester, who uses the pseudonym Phil Mynona and leads the Texas Privacy Coalition, said he has filed near-identical requests with almost 200 agencies, with results ranging from free document productions to five-figure quotes. The Texas Tribune reported the invoice is part of a broader pattern: DPS progressively narrowed what Flock audit data it released and asked the Attorney General's Office to withhold it, while TxDOT and the Department of Criminal Justice have challenged requests that would identify camera locations.
Because Flock Safety leaves most disclosure decisions to individual agencies, public records requests are often the only route to learning where cameras sit, how long data is kept and how searches are run — making fee quotes and withholding decisions a de facto limit on oversight.
Key facts
- North Richland Hills confirmed the invoice to the Texas Tribune but declined to answer questions; the Tribune has its own pending request.
- Other reported quotes include $121,000 to Houston station KPRC and $70,000 in Irving, while Sealy and Carrollton released records at no cost.
- A Lufkin officer was sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to 100 felony counts of abusing official information for using Flock cameras to stalk people; a USA Today records request prompted the investigation and a department-wide audit.
- DPS operates more than 900 of an estimated 13,000 Flock cameras statewide and did not respond to the Tribune's request for comment on its changed records responses.
- Of hundreds of Texas agencies using Flock, the Tribune found 59 use Flock's optional transparency portals, and only 16 of those publish search records.
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Texas city charges $2 million for Flock records as agencies make it harder to see how cameras are used (The Gilmer Mirror, October 5, 2026)
- Texas city charges $2 million for Flock records as agencies make it harder to see how cameras are used (The Texas Tribune, October 5, 2026)
- Some agencies, cities make Flock data harder to find (The Eagle, October 6, 2026)
- Texas city charges $2 million for Flock records as agencies make it harder to see how cameras are used (Odessa American, October 5, 2026)
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About this record
BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.
Updated October 12, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.