AUSTIN, Texas — Public officials in Austin are reconsidering their ALPR camera network contract after a string of twelve shootings unfolded over a few days, KXAN reported.
Four people were injured in the shootings, which took place across multiple locations.
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The three suspects, all juveniles, were eventually nabbed by the neighboring Manor Police Department, which used its own Flock Safety ALPR network to identify the suspects’ vehicles, according to the company. Austin turned off its network in 2025, Flock Safety noted.
“Manor is a city of roughly 20,000 residents with a fraction of Austin’s resources. What Manor has is an active license plate recognition network and the community support to keep it running. Manor PD located the suspects almost immediately. The spree ended. Residents stayed safe,” Flock said in a statement.
Mayor Kirk Watson called on the city to reconsider its contract in light of the shootings.
“What I will say is this, probably having license plate readers would have been helpful under these circumstances,” Watson said during a joint conference with Police Chief Lisa Davis. “So, we need to make sure when we are trying to reach balance and perspective, we take all of that into account.”
Watson also issued a written statement, saying that newly enacted city policy will help to govern the technology in a way that would prevent unapproved uses.
“The Council has passed the TRUST Act, which gives us the framework and clarity needed to move forward on the use of LPRs in Austin ... Now that we have the framework in place, it is time we move forward. We need to give our law enforcement professionals the tools they need to make sure people are safe.”
Councilmember Mike Siegel, who has been a prominent figure in opposition to the technology, responded by citing cases of the network being used for enforcement actions related to immigration, abortion and protests.
“I understand why we are asking the question of which tools should APD acquire to keep us as safe as possible,” Siegel said. “I want to balance our response to make sure that we aren’t adopting new technologies that make us less safe, overall.”
The system was turned off in June 2025 following an audit of the Austin Police Department’s ALPR data, KXAN reported.
Before the contract ended, APD Assistant Chief Sheldon Askew told the city council that the technology made the department “more successful” due to a staff shortage.
“Currently, we do not have enough officers to [perform] the job that we would prefer to do without the use of technology to supplement [our] work,” Askew said. “We’re just better [and] more successful when we have technology such as ALPR.”
