License plate reader cameras have already arrived in some Ellis County cities. They will soon be coming to unincorporated areas of the county.
The Ellis County Commissioners’ Court on Tuesday approved the use of Flock Safety automated license plate readers along public rights-of-way in the county through a resolution authorizing an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation. The agreement will be in place until terminated by either the county or the Texas Department of Public Safety with a 30-day notice.
Ellis County joins several neighboring counties and also several cities, including Waxahachie, Midlothian and Red Oak, in authorizing the use of license plate readers within their jurisdictions.
The initial outlay will be for eight cameras. Sheriff Brad Norman told commissioners the cost of installation and operation will be covered by a three-year grant at no cost to county taxpayers.
Norman said the readers are for law enforcement purposes only and TxDOT will install and maintain the license plate readers. The camera takes and stores images of license plates, and this information is deleted after 30 days, Norman said.
“This is not surveillance,” Norman said. “They’re on public roadways, so there is no expectation of privacy. It’s used as a tool for law enforcement.”
Norman said a recent theft of two 18-wheelers in the county in the past week could have been solved much quicker if the county had had readers in place.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Louis Ponder cast the only vote against the measure. Ponder said “he’s heard reports” that the Chinese Communist Party has hacked into the U.S. electrical grid and asked what protections the license plate data base would have. Ponder also said theoretically the information could be used by bad actors to track down and assassinate public officials.
“I just want to make sure that we’re not going to do something that’s going to put any American, Ellis County residents in particular, in a situation where they’re being surveilled, even though they’re not being surveilled,” Ponder said.
However, other commissioners were in support. Precinct 2 Commissioner Lane Grayson noted that cellphones provide far more intrusive personal information than these cameras will.
“It’s a tool that’s going to be used to connect the dots,” Grayson said. “Nobody is going to jail. It’s just a tool to get closer to the vehicle because it might have someone in it.”
Precinct 1 Commissioner Randy Stinson also supported the agreement, and Precinct 4 Commissioner Kyle Butler was satisfied with it after questioning Norman on how the database would be used.
Related to the agreement, the court approved a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Public Safety for the Sheriff’s Office to gain access to the Texas Automated License Plate Reader database. Ponder also voted against this measure.
