MONTGOMERY COUNTY
The public road is not a location file.
Plate readers photograph every passing car and file the time and place in a searchable database. Here is where they are, and what to do about it.
348 license plate readers mapped in Montgomery County
- Flock Safety 336
- Motorola / Vigilant 4
- Unattributed 8
Volunteer-reported via © OpenStreetMap contributors, as of September 20, 2026. A floor, not a census.
The invoice
The Woodlands is paying about $90,000 a year for a camera network it doesn't own, can't access, and has no contract for. The Sheriff's Office runs it. Nobody voted on it.
- $109,500Year one: The Woodlands Township's 30 Flock camerasThe Woodlands Township FY2026 budget
- ~$90,000Every year after, for the same 30 camerasThe Woodlands Township FY2026 budget
- 30Cameras the Township pays for and cannot access — the Sheriff's Office runs themThe Woodlands Township's own description of the arrangement
- 30 moreCameras on a separate state grant, outside the local budgetReported publicly; the grant amount is not yet sourced
Why this
What it gets used for
An EFF analysis of millions of searches of Flock's network found use for school residency checks and noise complaints. A Washington Post investigation (August 2026) documented at least 50 officers charged with or accused of improperly accessing these systems for personal reasons.
What the Fourth Amendment is for
The courts have not settled whether a searchable record of your driving needs a warrant. A government does not have to wait to find out. It can decide now not to keep the file.
Who pays
These systems arrive as budget lines, grants, donated equipment and contract renewals. Each one is a decision a public body can decline to make.
Nobody was asked
A record of where everyone drives got built without a public vote. The decision belongs to the people living under it. A petition is the public process that was skipped.
What this does not do
It does not ban private cameras
A business, church or household may keep a camera for a lawful purpose. It may not be set up to index every car on a public road. A public-roadway exclusion is how a driveway camera stays a driveway camera.
It does not blind a particular investigation
If a business holds footage tied to a specific case, it can still hand over that footage, voluntarily or under lawful process. Government does not get the password to everyone's driving history.
It does not ban counting traffic
Sensors that only count or classify vehicles, without identifying a particular one, are outside it. The line is identification, not observation.
It does not create a new crime
Accountability runs through evidence exclusion, civil suits, and existing misconduct law for public officials. No new felony.
A petition is a moment. The network is what shows up at the meeting.
Meetings, filings, contracts and votes in Montgomery County — not three emails a week.