What We Learned About the Local Flock Cameras

Editor’s note: This article is the first installment in a series dedicated to technology in law enforcement, as The Concho Observer examines the use of Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR) and takes a look inside the San Angelo Police Department’s Aviation and Real Time Information Center (ARTIC).

Technology is a “Force Multiplier”

On May 6, 2026, a little after 10 p.m., a high-school aged boy walking home from work along Green Meadow Drive was struck by a Ford F-150 truck, which then sped away. 

According to police, the victim laid there until his mother arrived at the scene a few minutes later, responding to his phone call, just ahead first responders.

The hit-and-run victim succumbed to his injuries on May 13, SAPD confirmed.

Less than 48-hours after the accident, the accused driver was arrested; a remarkably fast outcome for a crime which, in years past, might have gone unsolved. 

Using automated license plate reading cameras (ALPR) built by Flock Safety, SAPD put it’s new ARTIC system to use; tracking the license plate of the suspected vehicle, and arresting the suspect late the next day.

At police headquarters, Chief Travis Griffith delivered a brief statement, mentioning that the department used ALPR cameras located near Loop 306 to identify the suspect’s vehicle.

Griffith said solving that hit-and-run was an excellent example of how technology can be a “force multiplier” as next-generation policing arrives in San Angelo.

Inside the Aviation and Real Time Information Center

Following the press conference, Chief Griffith took the invited media into the ARTIC nerve center, which consists of a small room with video displays on the walls and desks for the officers who monitor incoming police communications.

Some of the data on the screens is publicly available.

The Texas Department of Transportation has cameras with a view of the major intersections in town, which displays on a live feed, along with the National Weather Service’s doppler radar loop on another screen.

Other capabilities were demonstrated to reporters but could not be photographed.

Investigators in the ARTIC pulled up a live feed of officer-worn body cameras.

During the press visit, they showed how they could select any officer’s body camera from a city-wide map, where it’s channeled into a live feed in the room, where they can monitor any situation.

In the live example they provided, two SAPD officers were responding to a call at a residence, possibly dealing with assault.

The immense benefit in this ability, Griffith explained, would come if the officers were attacked or rendered incapacitated during a stop. Then, the ARTIC would be able to call for back up instantly –hopefully before it was too late.

During a city budget workshop in April, Griffith told city planners that overtime spending for the department was “really high,” and they are looking for ways to hire more civilian staff in assistance roles to help that situation.

With many cities likely looking at budget deficits in the near future, automating law enforcement surveillance through grant funding is seen as a good option to keep more eyes on the streets.

Griffith also emphasized that what police had to rely on in emergencies was the information being provided to them over the telephone, which may not be the most reliable. “In this instance, people are seeing things that will change their lives,” the chief noted, adding that there are many details people likely won’t notice if they’re dealing with an immediate crisis.

This is the intention for the other half of ARTIC.

Drones and ALPRs

SAPD has started using drones as rapid first responders.

After receiving an emergency call, a drone will launch to the scene of the incident, and they estimate that it takes around a minute for the drone to respond to any location in the city.

This means that the police would have a visual of the situation, possibly minutes before an officer would have been able to arrive, and possibly while the crime is still being committed.

The drones are also equipped with thermal imaging capabilities, meaning that any suspect hiding at night will be fully visible.

All of this of course creates massive amounts of information to sort through.

All the information from drones, the body cameras, and the ALPR cameras ultimately must be examined by a human — though Flock Safety does use automated processes to organize the information.

“Everything that we’re using has human eyes on it,” Chief Griffith said, “even when officers get an alert from a license plate read, our policies require that you confirm that the metrics match. So, we’re not using this as ‘Gospel’ but as a tool.”

How The Cameras Work 

The cameras you see around town are tied to a nationwide network, local audit logs confirm.

Law enforcement agencies working in concert are able to send searches through the system, which runs the requested license plate through to check for any matches.

San Angelo Police Department had been recording the camera information and holding it for 30 days, but now that policy has changed, and the department is only saving the data for 15 days.

For example, if someone fled the City of Houston and headed out west through San Angelo, Houston PD would be able to run a search for the license plate number, which would show up in Tom Green County, giving investigators a solid time-and-place lead.

According to Griffith, SAPD currently shares its Flock camera data with about 150 agencies across the state. 

The audit logs record each time a license plate is searched by SAPD, with the time frame requested, and the crime the investigation is in pursuance of, along with records of how many networks were searched in that investigation. 

What The Cameras Cannot Do 

According to SAPD, the utility pole mounted Flock cameras do not run license plates for registration and insurance.

However, the chief did make clear that patrol car’s onboard cameras do have those capabilities, and that — like most departments — SAPD officers routinely run plates to verify registration and insurance.

Among the audit logs, SAPD said that currently no audit log exists that records when other law enforcement agencies searched through and found a match within the San Angelo system. SAPD confirmed that they have requested that specific audit logs be created by the parent company, Flock Safety. 

The ARTIC supervisor said “our goal here is not to track or surveil. You have technology out there that keeps that case from going cold.

“Theres still a human function to this. We’re not using all A.I. We’re still out there, boots on the ground trying to solve crime.”

Inside the Audit Logs

The Concho Observer was provided with the SAPD’s internal audit logs for their Flock cameras.

The city currently operates nine of these cameras, located in what police describe as “high crime areas” and arterial roads that are common exits for those areas of town. 

Readers might have noticed more than nine of these cameras around town, however.

There are around two dozen more cameras that will go up over the next year owned directly by the city. 

Example Audit Log

Agency	Time Range	Total Networks Searched	License Plate	Reason	Date of Search	Type of Search
San Angelo PD	12/31/26 to 01/02/2026	9	(REDACTED FROM RELEASED AUDIT LOGS)	Burglary (Identifying Suspect Vehicle)	01/02/2026	Lookup

In this case, investigators at SAPD requested a search over nine networks for a certain license plate number in connection with a burglary.

Many SAPD searches go through anywhere from a few dozen camera networks, to more wide-ranging searches of hundreds. The highest number of networks searched number in the 6,000-total searches range.

Based on the audit logs, certain patterns emerge.

Smaller, more local crimes are typically searched on a smaller number of networks. As the severity or flight risk of the crime increases, so to do the total networks searched.

In stolen motor vehicle investigations, the number of networks searched averaged around 5,800 and 6,080 total networks searched.

Flock Camera Searches April 2026

The following is not representative of the number of each crime committed in San Angelo during April 2026 – only the number of times a search was made while investigating a particular offense. Many of the instances down below, such as “Weapons Offense” were all listed under the same case number.

Reason For Search	Number of Searches
Arson	9
Assault/Battery	50
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	72
City Planning/Traffic Analysis	7
Criminal Motor Vehicle Offense	13
Destruction of Property/Vandalism	8
Disorderly Conduct	1
DUI	3
Drugs/Narcotics	40
Fraud/Financial Crime	6
Hit and Run Accident	427
Homicide	27
Larceny	58
Missing Person	10
Stolen Vehicle	46
Sex Offender Investigation	10
Stolen Property	<10
Threats and Harassment	<30
Wanted Person (Arrest Warrant)	27
Weapons Offenses	16
Welfare Check/Be-On-Look-Out (BOLO)	13

What we can glean from a month of audit logs is that the highest number of searches came from crimes of high-flight risk, or where the ALPR camera might possibly provide video evidence of the crime: hit and run accidents, with 427 unique searches; and burglary, at 72 unique searches.

Audit Logs Depict The Future of Policing

Among the audit logs provided to the Concho Observer was a massive spreadsheet of what other law enforcement agencies around the state and country have been searching for. 

The audit log consists of 505,411 unique searches from hundreds of agencies across the United States, recording each time that a law enforcement agency searched for a specific license plate through the Flock system.

The audit log depicts the new paradigm of police surveillance, one where eyes can be on the scene across the nation. During the visit to the ARTIC at Police Headquarters, Sgt. Welch put it bluntly:

“Anything made for good, and made righteously, can be used for bad.”