The Courier of Montgomery County reports that the Texas Attorney General’s Office said that the city of Conroe must release information it withheld in response to a nine-page open records request about Flock Safety cameras.
Councilmembers are being pushed to terminate their contract with Georgia-based Flock Safety and get rid of over 51 cameras around the community. The request was submitted by James Fletes on March 16th and it crowdfunded $1,271.60 in 24 hours to pay for the information.
Some of the requested information Fletes asked for was initially released while, citing confidentiality, some information was withheld.
While the city could hold back some sensitive information according to the Attorney Generals office, the release of basic information was required by law.
Fletes looked upon the Attorney Generals opinion as a “win” for transparency.
Of what Fletes originally received, 23 pages of it were completely blacked out. He said, “The city has fought me on almost every page.”
Fletes had a plethora of requests, which included council action, policies, the city’s contract with Flock Safety, city emails related to the cameras. camera location and records of searches and data pulls having to do with political demonstrations in the city.
Across 49 states, in more than 6,000 communities and 5,000 law enforcement agencies, the Flock Safety system is used.
The Flock System has been in use by the city of Conroe since 2020.
Fletes, as of Tuesday, had gathered 1,278 signatures for a petition to Change.org to cancel the contract.
The cameras are not AI surveillance cameras, according to Conroe Police chief Jon Buckholtz. He said the cameras capture vehicle make, license plate numbers, model, color, date, location and time.
