Texas city demands $2M for public records on Flock usage

A Texas suburb, North Richland Hills, has requested $2.3 million from the Texas Privacy Coalition to fulfill a public records request regarding the city's use of Flock Safety's AI-enabled surveillance cameras. The city justified the exorbitant fee by claiming that reviewing approximately one terabyte of communications related to system errors and effectiveness would require 14 years of labor. The requester, Phil Mynona, characterized the demand as an attempt to obstruct transparency and stifle public oversight of police surveillance technology. This incident highlights a growing trend where municipalities impose prohibitive costs on advocates and journalists seeking information about the deployment of automated license plate readers. As public concern over privacy and potential misuse of AI-driven tracking systems intensifies, this case underscores the ongoing tension between local government transparency and the administrative hurdles used to limit access to sensitive public data.