Abbott Backtracks On Cameras He Built - And You Paid For

This is an excerpt from the Progress Texas Daily Dispatch, delivered every weekday by Progress Texas Communications Director Chris Mosser. Rapid response on the breaking news stories Texas progressives need to know—all in less than 10 minutes!

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This election year—in just the last few weeks, really, as it has dawned on Republicans that their grip on power in Texas might not be permanent after all—it is not a stretch or hyperbole to say that Governor Greg Abbott is now more or less running against the policies…of Governor Greg Abbott.

He has reversed himself on the massive wave of data centers he beckoned to Texas with huge tax incentives and near-zero oversight or regulation. He has reversed himself on Donald Trump’s plans to run roughshod over the Big Bend. And building on that hypocritical trend, Governor Abbott’s latest reversal is on Flock cameras—and it comes with a shocking revelation on how they suddenly appeared almost overnight just about everywhere across Texas: it turns out, you paid for them through more expensive insurance premiums.

Back during the 2023 legislative session, in a show of full agreement and cooperation, all of the House and Senate, both parties, joined hands and passed Senate Bill 224, which was designed to combat the statewide spike in catalytic converter thefts that was high on our list of problems that year. The law added a fee to auto insurance policies across the state—your auto insurance policy—which created a dedicated revenue stream that was supposed to support traditional police operations and help officers interrupt auto parts thefts in progress. The measure sailed through both chambers—100% unanimous passage—every single senator and state representative believing they were funding a straightforward enhancement of law enforcement tools. But, instead of directing those funds towards traditional policing methods like hiring more officers for better pay, or bolstering the training of police investigators, the Texas Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority—one of those state agencies you’ve probably never heard of with a board, of course, largely appointed and overseen by Governor Greg Abbott—rerouted a massive portion of that insurance fee revenue you paid into building the massive blanket network of AI-driven Flock surveillance cameras that are now everywhere across our state. At least $30 million went into Flock cameras over the next three years while nobody was paying much attention. The state of Texas has funded more than 3,200 of these cameras—and chances are you drive by several of them every time you get in your car.

All of this happened quietly, under Governor Abbott’s watch. There was no major public debate, nor was there any explicit statutory authorization from the legislature. Every single lawmaker in the state in 2023—every Democrat and every Republican— voted for this funding, and many of them are now expressing deep frustration, noting that automated surveillance technology was never discussed or contemplated when SB 224 was being considered. But, that frustration pales in comparison to the growing wave of public, bipartisan resistance to what feels like the overnight appearance of a massive AI-powered governmental surveillance apparatus on every street corner, which is the real and obvious impetus for yet another election year policy reversal from Governor Greg Abbott. For years he has allowed this board of his own appointees to supervise, approve and fund the expansion of this camera network, but late last week, just as the Texas Tribune was about to spill the beans on how the Flock surveillance network got funded, Abbott suddenly issued an order freezing state agency grant funding for Flock cameras, framing his latest reversal as a measure to control an overreaching surveillance apparatus.one that was built on his watch and with his approval.

All of this started as a routine, uncontroversial and unanimous legislative effort to combat auto parts theft. Under Republican mismanagement it has resulted in a massive, poorly-regulated public surveillance network right out of 1984, powered by artificial intelligence—and paid for with your rising insurance premiums.

Read the remainder of today's Daily Dispatch here: https://progresstexas.substack.com/p/abbotts-flock-flip-flop-and-how-he?r=lw1o1&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web