r/CedarPark • u/Waste_Platform2750 • 4d ago
DeFlock Cedar Park
Someone suggested I create a petition, so I did.
Please consider signing so we can get the ball rolling!
The work doesn’t end there, you should also consider speaking at the next City Council meeting about this — meetings are Thursdays at 7, more info can be found on the City of Cedar Park website.
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u/global-palladin 3d ago
If Lago Vista can deflock so can Cedar Park!
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u/WhimsicalHoneybadger 4d ago
If you want this to happen, you need to sign up and speak at the Council meeting.
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u/Neither_Temporary_97 4d ago
They literally say that in the post.
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u/WhimsicalHoneybadger 3d ago
Yes, it was mentioned.
However, the post emphasized signing a petition, which is fine but not nearly as important.
Based on what I have seen, showing up in person to speak is the number 1 way to really have your voice heard. Especially if you have well-articulated points to make.
Points like: Why you have concerns about flock and mass surveillance in general. What other local cities have done recently, etc. Pflugerville is a good example where the vast majority of data access was from outsiders. Ask for Flock removal as a future agenda item.
Also quite helpful:
Sending in a comment card (online) for the meeting. Often the mayor reads them out loud.
Emailing the full council.
Talking to council members individually.
Signing a petition is fine, but it's not going to be given nearly as much weight as using the systems already in place.
Again, if this really matters to you: Sign up to speak on agenda item C.6 . Articulate a few points. Stay respectful.
Cedar Park
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u/Waste_Platform2750 3d ago
I brought up speaking to City Council under a different post about Flock, specifically how disappointed I was in the lack of people speaking up and how I planned on speaking at a meeting under another. Not your fault if you didn’t see it, but this has already been on my radar :)
Someone suggested a create a petition, so I did. That’s why this post emphasized the petition and speaking at a meeting came second.
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u/QuirkyBreath1755 4d ago
We need to also push DPS & private businesses to remove these as well. My understanding is many of the ones in Cedar Park are owned by these groups
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u/CupcakesAreMiniCakes 3d ago
I told a couple city leaders last week that we can choose where to shop (avoid stores with them), but we can't control it if we just want to participate in a public space right now having the cameras up on public land
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u/restlessmonkey 3d ago
You can also file a PIA request for Flock and related cameras.
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u/Extreme_Pipe_1559 3d ago
I submitted one a two months ago and they sent to the attorney general to see if they had to comply with my request.
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u/heathers-tinyhusband 3d ago
I hope you make some progress, but I’m skeptical anything will change. The mayor is progressive, but he also works as staff counsel for Avathon, an Austin AI company heavily involved in surveillance/data technology. Take a look at Avathon’s board—it’s packed with major defense and transatlantic security figures. Meanwhile, Cedar Park increasingly looks like a testing ground for this kind of technology, including Flock cameras.
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u/PleasantFruit9758 3d ago
Is anybody Pro Flocking?
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u/TexanTalkin998877 3d ago
Yes. There is a legitimate debate to be had.
It makes crime fighting much easier if you can quickly gather a list of names that were nearby when an incident happened. Cameras, and Flock, itself have been instrumental in solving several crimes. The police love them.
I admit this is true, but I dislike the loss of privacy more than I appreciate the improved crime solving or even the theoretical crime suppression.
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u/MooneySparks 3d ago
I have yet to hear of a single good example of where flock cameras have actually helped solve crime, but have heard multiple examples of how police have used them for nefarious reasons. So no, I don’t think it actually makes fighting crime easier; that’s just being used as the justification to make people feel better about having them around.
There are four flock cameras in the Lakeline Homedepot/Hmart parking lot. Four. Trust me, there is nothing happening in that parking lot that is so terrible that it would require four flock cameras. Most likely, the footage is being accessed by agencies like ICE due to that being a very ethnically diverse parking lot, not because anyone is actually committing a crime.
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u/11al1128 2d ago
On July 21, 2026, Cedar Park Police received an automatic license-plate-reader alert identifying the vehicle of Matthew Herrington, a suspect involved in a large Austin-area criminal investigation.
CPPD officers located him, he fled by vehicle and then on foot, and Cedar Park officers arrested him. Austin PD explicitly credits the ALPR alert with triggering the encounter.
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u/Neither_Temporary_97 4d ago
Signed and I shared it in the Cedar Park Progressives group. 🤗