Sheriff shares reasons for the decision

(Seguin) — Guadalupe County is doing away with its Flock Safety cameras.

The decision came after Guadalupe County Sheriff Joshua Ray determined the cost of repairing vandalized cameras and continuing to pay for the system outweighed the benefits of keeping its current contract with the company.

Ray was granted the request during a recent meeting of the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court.

Ray tells the Seguin Daily News that the county’s decision to end its contract with Flock Safety was not a rejection of the technology, but instead a financial decision based on vandalism, repair costs and the county’s ongoing budget challenges.

“Flock is a fantastic tool for law enforcement. I mean, it’s a great tool. We’ve solved a lot of crime utilizing Flock, but their business model is starting to fail. And I was put into a situation where I had to determine whether the future cost was worth it. And the cameras are being vandalized. I think we’ve had three of 17 cameras that have been vandalized. And we’re getting ready to make an arrest on one of those. I mean, we are pursuing the vandals because you can’t just go out and tear up property. That’s against the law, right? But that being said, I don’t see this movement going away. I see cameras continuing to be vandalized,” said Ray.

On top of the damage, Ray says the county was responsible not only for the cost of replacing the equipment, but it was also being billed for cameras that were no longer operational.

“And, we reached out to Flock about these cameras being repaired and they are expecting us to pay for the cameras to be repaired. And they’re also charging us monthly for the use of cameras that don’t work or aren’t even there anymore,” said Ray.

Ray says continuing the Flock contract would have cost the county $57,000. By terminating the contract, the county will pay a one-time $8,500 termination fee, resulting in a net savings of about $48,500.

Ray says this decision by the county was also made with the uncertainty of whether the technology would even continue in Texas.

“In addition to that, I reached out to some members of the legislature because I’m expecting it to be a major issue in this next session. And overwhelmingly, the feedback I got is they expect state legislation to come down to ban flight cameras in the state of Texas. So really, I just think it was a fiscal decision, an educated decision based on all the facts that I had. I think we’re just getting ahead of what the state’s basically going to make us do anyhow,” said Ray.

During his request, the sheriff made clear that the vandalism of Flock cameras is not limited to Guadalupe County and has been occurring around the country.

“It’s throughout the country. I mean, it’s happening everywhere. I just took a picture of a Facebook post this morning and sent it to my leadership team in another part of the country. They have a truck that’s tied up to one of the camera poles and they’re pulling it down. And you know, flock cameras, as effective as it is with license plate readers and descriptions of vehicles, it’s not effective to be catching these vandals. So that’s another problem. If they want their product to be effective out in the field, they need to have camera footage of the people that are vandalizing their cameras and help us with what’s happening,” said Ray.

Despite ending the contract, Ray says doing away with the cameras does not prevent his office from successfully doing its job.

“I’ve been a police officer for over 25 years and we solved crime before flock cameras. So it is a great tool, but we can do our job without it,” said Ray.

Although he regrets losing a tool that he considers highly effective, he ultimately believes ending the contract was the most responsible choice.

“I would just add that I hate that we had to get rid of it because it is a highly effective law enforcement tool. But just putting all the facts together and everything that was in front of me, I thought it was a smarter decision to make. And there’s been some rhetoric out there about it being a violation of everyone’s Fourth Amendment rights. That argument is just not legally accurate. I’ve been a student of the law now for a long time. And that’s just not a accurate legal argument, but I’m not dismissing the feelings of government mass surveillance and the questions of where that data is going. Those are all justifiable concerns,” said Ray.

Ray says again he expects changes with the overall system and awaits those decisions to be made at the state level.