Austin, TX

City Manager T.C. Broadnax withdrew the automated license plate reader renewal item from the Austin City Council agenda before it could be voted on, ending the Austin Police Department's ALPR program on June 30, 2025. The program had run 40 fixed Flock Safety cameras and roughly 500 vehicle-mounted Axon cameras. A city audit covering the March 2024 to March 2025 trial found the cameras scanned about 117 million vehicles, generated over 16,000 alerts, and led to 228 arrests, but also found that data could still be shared with outside agencies including immigration enforcement despite safeguards adopted in 2023.

What moved this decision

city audit finding that data could reach outside and immigration enforcement agencies despite 2023 safeguards
organized resident opposition
concerns for immigrant families and political dissidents

What happened afterwards

Austin's council followed up on April 23, 2026 by passing the TRUST Act (Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology), requiring departments to publish a justification report at least four weeks in advance and obtain council approval before deploying data-collecting surveillance technology, with annual reporting and an exigent-circumstances exception. In the interim the program was partly circumvented: the Texas Department of Public Safety installed cameras on state highway rights-of-way inside Austin in February 2026, and APD retained access to neighboring departments' data.

What we still don’t know

These are the records we would need to describe this decision completely. If you can help obtain them, or already have them, get in touch.

Obtain the city audit report and the withdrawn agenda item as primary documents
Confirm the exact scope of APD's continued access to neighboring agencies' ALPR data after June 30, 2025
Confirm the TRUST Act ordinance number and final vote tally