Documented Incident
Records: 96.6% of 5.1 Million Searches of Weber County ALPR Cameras Came From Out-of-State Agencies
First reported: August 15, 2026 · 5 sources
Public records obtained by the advocacy group Utah Civic Compact from the Weber County Sheriff's Office show that roughly 5.1 million searches were run against the county's 10 Flock Safety license plate cameras between February 2022 and July 2026, with 96.6% originating from agencies outside Utah, as reported by the Standard-Examiner. The Houston Police Department alone accounted for more than a third of all queries, according to public records cited by KSL NewsRadio. Sheriff's Office representative Colby Ryan said each search is officer-initiated and requires documented justification tied to an active investigation, warrant, missing person case, or stolen vehicle, and that monthly audits found Houston's queries were linked to active investigations. Utah Civic Compact said it has no evidence that out-of-state agencies broke Utah law, but argued that only audits of individual searches could confirm that.
The figures illustrate how a small local camera network can be queried overwhelmingly by distant agencies, raising questions about whether the jurisdiction that owns the cameras can meaningfully enforce its own state's rules. Utah's experience is being cited in an active legislative and local-ordinance debate over retention limits, audits, and out-of-state access.
Key facts
- Weber County Sheriff's Office owns all 10 cameras; records show about 5.1 million searches from February 2022 to July 2026, 96.6% by out-of-state agencies.
- Houston Police Department was the single most frequent searcher, accounting for over a third of queries.
- Utah Code § 41-6a-2004 currently allows retention of ALPR data for up to nine months absent an investigative or court-ordered hold.
- A 2025 ALPR bill passed the Utah House 64-2 but died in the Senate; HB 327, which proposed a 150-day retention cap and encryption and reporting mandates, died in committee in March.
- Flock Safety announced on August 13 that it will cut default retention from 30 days to seven and require misuse-audit tools for law enforcement clients by January 1, 2027.
Timeline
- August 15, 2026Houston Police Ran a Third of Weber County's 5 Million License Plate Camera Searches
- August 17, 2026Most of this Utah county’s license plate camera data is searched by out-of-state law enforcement
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Houston Police Ran a Third of Weber County's 5 Million License Plate Camera Searches (Hoodline, August 15, 2026)
- Most of this Utah county’s license plate camera data is searched by out-of-state law enforcement (Kiowa County Press, August 17, 2026)
- Most of this Utah county’s license plate camera data is searched by out-of-state law enforcement (Utah News Dispatch, August 14, 2026)
- Most of this Utah county’s license plate camera data is searched by out-of-state law enforcement (Standard-Examiner, August 14, 2026)
- Utah governor 'deeply troubled' by Flock camera concerns, orders privacy review (Headtopics, August 21, 2026)
More from Utah
Everything we have documented in Utah, or search every Utah article in the archive.
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 August 22, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.