The Denton County Sheriff's Office has bought five new Flock Safety license plate reader cameras at $3,000 apiece, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported, and has not said where they will go.
The $15,000 purchase appeared in a routine list of equipment and software purchases given to the Commissioners Court on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Under the county's budget policy, departments can make such purchases from money already in their budgets without a separate court vote, so commissioners did not have to approve it.
According to the Record-Chronicle, the Sheriff's Office already runs at least nine Flock cameras around its facility, installed in 2024. A sheriff's spokesperson was not available to the newspaper for comment.
What the cameras do
Flock's automated license plate readers take still photos of passing vehicles and turn them into searchable records that police can query. Sheriff Tracy Murphree has defended the tools, writing in an October 2025 Cross Timbers Gazette column, quoted by the Record-Chronicle, that the cameras "contribute to the overall safety of our residents" and help solve cases ranging from stolen vehicles to kidnappings and missing persons.
Critics see them differently. The local group DeFlock Denton estimates more than 500 license plate readers are operating across Denton County, the Record-Chronicle reported, though it is unclear how many are private and how many belong to public agencies. A September 2024 presentation to the Denton City Council listed Little Elm among more than a dozen Denton County cities using Flock at that time.
