By Suanne Pyle, Chair, Kendall County Democratic Party, August 16, 2026
I recently became aware of a new issue in our county. I do not know the gentleman who started the petition mentioned below, but I agree with his message, and I want you to be aware of what’s happening in Boerne and Kendall County.
According to a story on KENS5 (by Bella Popaduik), Kendall County has installed 43 Flock cameras (produced by Atlanta-based Flock Safety) around major roadways and neighborhood entrances. According to an article by the Texas Tribune, these cameras “use artificial intelligence to scan every vehicle that passes by, uploading the plate number, model, color and even bumper stickers to the country’s largest vehicle surveillance database. Law enforcement agencies that contract with the company — here and across the U.S. — can search the accumulated database with a few keystrokes and without a warrant.”
You can find the locations of these cameras on a crowd-sourced website here. A new database also provides some visibility into which license plates have been looked up. You can read the news story here.
In July, U.S. Rep. Keith Self (R-McKinney) introduced a bill to require federal law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant to obtain this data. In a press release, he said, “Americans’ Fourth Amendment right to be secure in their privacy does not disappear just because of new technology or artificial intelligence. Americans have a constitutional right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, and our government is supposed to get a warrant before invading that privacy. This bill simply restores that protection. Get a warrant.”
Dustin Hebert of Boerne has started a petition to get rid of these cameras after he said he noticed them appearing around the county about six months ago. Over 1,600 people have already signed. According to the Texas Tribune article, nearly 50 cities nationwide have terminated their contracts with Flock due to privacy concerns.
“I didn’t think too much of it at [first], but later on, once I realized what they were doing, it just bothered me,” Hebert said. Hebert said he is not opposed to technology that can help law enforcement, but he is concerned about the potential impact on privacy and constitutional rights. “It’s in a gray area of constitutional rights and [could] impede upon our Fourth Amendment rights and our privacy concerns,” Hebert said.
In his petition Hebert asks that Flock cameras be removed from Kendall County and suggested that we contact our County Commissioners (contact information on the Kendall County website here).
In his petition, Hebert suggests we take the following action:
Commissioners Court is expected to take up the Flock grant on either August 25 or September 8, and the contract’s cancellation window closes in mid-September. So, both meetings matter. Commissioners Court meetings are held beginning at 9am at the Kendall County Courthouse (201 E San Antonio Ave, Boerne). The agenda is posted the week prior to the meeting. You are required to submit a Commissioners Court Public Participation Form to the Judge’s Court Coordinator either in person or online by 8:00 a.m. on the day of the Commissioners Meeting. Failure to submit by this time may result in your right to speak being forfeited.
These cameras are new and different from the “regular” traffic surveillance cams that Boerne has had for years.
I urge you to contact your County Commissioner and attend the Commissioners Court if you can. These cameras have helped solve several crimes, but the collection of all this data on ordinary citizens who have done nothing wrong seems wrong. There have been many instances of abuse from other locations where Flock cameras are used. We don’t want that happening in Boerne and Kendall County.
