Public safety committee.

We are joined today.

Councilmember Mary Nan Huffman and Councilmember Ramirez.

We're also joined by staff from Councilmember Kingman's office, Councilmember Castillo's office, Mayor Pro Tem Castax Tatum's office, and Councilmember Alcorn's office, and virtually by Councilmember Pollard's office.

I get everyone, I think I got everyone.

All right, we have two presentations today.

Um the first will be legislative updates and laws that have gone into effect since September 1st.

This is a presentation by HPD.

We have Chief Anderson and Lieutenant Carroll.

Good morning.

Great.

Uh again, my name is Jessica Anderson.

I'm executive assistant chief with the Houston Police Department, and with me I have Lieutenant Nathan Carroll, who is normally assigned to the South Central Division.

Um we were first thank you for having us.

We were asked to present today on noteworthy new laws that have passed since September 1st.

Um just for context, um we also wanted to provide this opportunity to kind of explain how we operate and what we do.

You heard from Josh Sanders and the IGR team earlier this year, but we do a very similar role, and so wanted to highlight that for you guys today.

Um next slide.

So just a brief overview.

Um I'm not gonna read the slide to you, but we tracked over 1,400 bills, and of those bills, only 180 passed.

You'll hear more from Lieutenant Carroll in a minute, but HPD has been involved with the legislature for I think this will this was my eighth session.

So as a collateral duty, um we spend time in Austin navigating all the bills that impact law enforcement and the criminal justice system, specifically those with HPD.

So we, as I said, we tracked over 1,400 bills that touched HPD or law enforcement in some form or fashion.

Just for context, the city of Houston, Josh and Alexa tracked 1,701 bills.

So we were tracking 1,400, they were tracking 1700.

Essentially, we split responsibilities where Josh and Alexa, the city's IGR team handles everything that's not law enforcement at the legislature, and we handle everything that does touch law enforcement.

Um traffic laws, but we also are paying attention to things like uh towing, nuisance laws, open records, uh court operations, grants, and the budget.

The other thing that I want to mention is that what's not captured in these numbers of what passed are the bad bills that did not pass.

We spend a lot of our time helping to um educate legislators on the things that may be well intended but are not necessary or need to be tweaked or just flat out killed.

As you folks likely know, people have lots of great ideas for lots of great bills, but they're not always as well informed as they could be.

Um, and so our job is to work with them in the legislature to either tweak the legislation or kill it.

And that's so as I said, a lot of um the bills that were passed don't reflect what did not pass, and that's probably more important than what did um as I mentioned um our role at the legislature is a collateral duty.

I'm regularly assigned to the strategic operations.

Lieutenant Carroll is normally assigned to South Central.

We continue in those jobs while also managing all that's happening at the legislature that impacts law enforcement.

And Lieutenant Carroll will touch a little bit more on what we do and how we do it there.

Uh next slide.

So as Chief Anderson mentioned, HPD's had a pretty constant presence in the uh capital trying to make sure that we can influence any legislation that impacts law enforcement.

And just to go over kind of what happens before, during and after the legislative session.

Um part of the start of legislative session, HPD engages employees to solicit suggestions for possible legislation.

Lots of officers have lots of good ideas on how we can change legislation to make the statutes more productive and effective for HPD.

And this has always been a good way to hear from people about what needs fixing.

The suggestions must be vetted by city hall, so we don't always get to carry all the ideas as official legislation, but it's still helpful way to identify the issues if and when other bills come up.

During session, we rely on our subject matter experts to review filed bills to determine the impact on HPD in our operations, as well as to identify the opportunity for changes.

This review helps form our activities in the Capitol as we try to educate lawmakers and others.

This is very similar to the IDR team's process.

So on the slide, you can actually see a form that's what we send out for analysis, and we also send out some circulars looking for suggestions on uh changes in in the upcoming sessions.

We can go to the next slide.

As previously mentioned, we monitored well over 1400 bills this session that had an impact on law enforcement or HPD.

We spend nearly all of the 140 days of session in Austin walking the halls of the Capitol.

We usually spend about four days per week in the Capitol, meeting with stakeholders and legislatures, testifying committees to make sure that any bill that passes does not have a detrimental impact on HPD or law enforcement in Texas.

We're not lobbyists, uh, we're liaisons, and we're also subject matter experts to the legislatures.

Our mission is to provide information to legislatures so they can make informed decisions on their legislation.

Sometimes this means arranging travel for other subject matter experts within our department to provide testimony on specific bills.

For example, you may have heard or seen some headlines recently about other cities across the nation grappling with how to deal with street takeovers.

HPD helped with this legislation in 2021 and again in 2023, strengthening our ability to address this crime.

It was thanks to our involvement in this legislative process and leaning on our officers to know the problems that allowed us to get ahead of the issue.

A lot of what we do is in partnership with other stakeholders, including HPOU, DPS, TBC, Dallas, the Texas Chief Police, uh Police Chiefs Association, and the District and County Attorneys Association.

We all have different roles at the Capitol and sometimes different interest, but for the most part, all the criminal justice partners are on the same page, and the coalition is very successful.

As you can see in the picture, Chief Diaz was able to visit Austin several times this session to give testimony and support for HPD at the Capitol, and it was very helpful for us.

Aside from the meetings, we're also in committee hearings watching the debates and action on the House and Senate floor, or watching both from our computers.

Committee hearings and floor debates can go for hours, and we are often in the Capitol monitoring the action well into the evenings, sometimes even past midnight.

We also regularly correspond with numerous divisions of HPD while we're in Austin to receive bill analysis or get a second opinion of a bill from our subject matter experts.

So, as always, and in line with Josh and Alexa, the HPD strategy focuses on working collaboratively behind the scenes, providing valuable insight and constructive feedback on pending pieces of legislation, and the spirit of collaboration allows us to gain the trust of, be resources for, and serve as partners to the legislators and their staff.

And similar to Josh and Alexa's strategy, HPD very carefully considers what we lend our support to and what we um what we testify on and for.

So the next slide.

As I mentioned, we 180 of the bills that we tracked passed.

Um we're not going to go through 180 bills for you.

Uh we've had we have 10 on this slide that we thought we would just highlight because you have likely heard of these bills or the genesis for them.

So we're just gonna tick through these just to give you a sense of some of the things that we're paying attention to.

The first bill is House Bill 33.

This was the Uvaldi Strong Act.

It stemmed from all the things that happened in Uvaldi.

And it highlights responsibilities of school district law enforcement in response to active shooter threats.

It also outlines training mandates for personnel, necessary equipment, and post-incident responsibilities for law enforcement and school districts.

The purpose of the bill is to create a standardized and coordinated response to active shooter threats and to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the process.

And so while the bulk of this bill really impacts the school ISDs, HPD does have some training components that we are monitoring and abiding by.

As you know, the property room has a lot going on, and the more we can do to get things out more efficiently is beneficial.

So this one really just allows us to post things on a website as opposed to in the newspaper.

The process didn't change, just where we can put the information.

And so by modernizing this, it's uh it should not only let people see the information more easily, as not everybody is reading the newspaper, and it will allow us to get rid of stuff that's um stuck in there.

The next one, House Bill 1902.

This creates a criminal offense for jugging.

This is one that you might have heard about.

Um we originally came up with this law in 2019, but at that time it was seen as simply a Houston problem.

Um since then, it uh has moved beyond just a Houston problem, is impacting all jurisdictions, and so the legislature was a little bit more um willing to uh see this through.

Um, and we're glad that other uh jurisdictions picked up the torch to get this passed.

Uh this new law addresses the predatory nature of jugging uh by creating an entirely new penal code section specific to this type of crime.

And then House Bill 688 was an instrumental recruiting and retention bill.

This is the one that brought drop back for many of our officers.

Um we've seen that it really does increase the retention.

We're very excited about this one.

Do you want to do the Senate bills?

Sure.

So SP1 is the state's budget bill, but it contained an appropriation specific for local law enforcement equipment, which was a major one for HPD.

We have an aging fleet, and this allocation of 10 million dollars will allow the department trust to strategically place new vehicles within our fleet, which translates to better police services for our community.

City funds alone cannot get us out of that hole caused by manufacturing issues during COVID.

So this 10 million dollars on top of our normal funding is timely and will drastically improve our fleet.

Next one is Senate Bill 482.

It modified the assault uh assault in penal in the penal code by creating a third degree felony offense.

If the assault is committed against a person whom the actor knows or reasonably should have known is an on duty utility worker.

It is also a Class B offense now.

If a person interferes with a utility employee or agent while they are performing their duties, why is this important?

After Hurricane Beryl in Derecho, HPD responded to numerous calls around the city relating to utility workers being harassed or even assaulted due to long-term power outages.

So that's a pretty important tool for Houston.

Senate Bill 1164 uh enhances law enforcement's abilities to take persons suspected of being in a mental health crisis into custody in order to get treatment.

Uh the criteria for Mercy detention as well as the emergency detention form were updated as well in this bill.

And then one change that has garnered a lot of attention is the addition of anesygnosia to the criteria for determining whether someone presents a substantial risk of serious harm.

So anasynosia is a condition where a person is unaware of their mental illness.

So by adding this criteria, the goal is to facilitate early intervention and treatment.

And there's more on the next slide about this issue.

And then uh as we talked earlier about the mental health division will be giving a presentation on this next month to this committee.

Uh seven Senate Bill 1646 mirrors changes made last session that addressed uh cadalic converter theft.

However, this bill was specific to copper or brass theft.

Uh this was in response to a dramatic increase in copper and brass theft from the telecommunication industry's infrastructure.

It went into effect May 30th of 2025 and amended various penal code offenses and created new statutes specifically to address this.

More specifically, the theft and criminal mischief laws were amended to add language for theft, damage, or destruction of copper or brass, and a new offense for the unauthorized possession of certain copper or brass material was also created.

This bill made changes to the occupations code to limit resale of these materials to metal recycling entities.

Uh ATT initiated this bill and it was backed by law enforcement statewide because of cases across the state where these types of thefts cause communication failures to critical infrastructures.

Senate Bill 1902 went into effect July 1st, 2025, and it's related to House Bill 718 that passed in the 88th regular session.

Both bills are related to the transition from paper temporary dealer license plates to hard plates.

The issue of paper plates has caused numerous issues for law enforcement over the years, providing cover to criminals, and these two bills go a long way in enhancing law enforcement investigations.

And then Senate Bill 3031 is intended to address road rage by increasing the punishment for drivers who shoot at other cars.

More specifically, it amends aggravated assault to include shooting incidents in which the perpetrator discharges their firearm while going to or from a vehicle or when the shock causes property damage or puts someone in fear of serious bodily injury.

This came from a concern that a gap existed in aggravated assault that did not adequately address road rage specifically.

And as you can see from headlines across the state, this comes up from time to time.

So we're glad to have some progress made in the session for that.

Next slide.

So this next slide, um, I'll let Lieutenant Carroll explain it a little bit, but you should have received a video uh before this um committee hearing that outlines some of the changes for this.

It's uh about six minutes long and does a far better job than we could do.

Um but I know there's a lot of attention on this bill, so or this new law, so I wanted to provide a little bit of context for you.

Do you want to cover a little bit?

Sure.

So in addition to the changes we previously discussed, and then the change to the mercy detention form.

This legislation codified that officers conducting an EDO need not wait at the hospital, an emergency detention order, need not wait at the hospital for the person to be medically screened and may return to service after delivery of the person in the form.

That's important to us because it allows our officers to deal with the issue at hand, give them to the proper treatment facility, and then get back to help other citizens of Houston with other issues.

And again, we didn't want to go too far in depth on this one, primarily because the video covers it and because next month you'll have a presentation specifically from the mental health division.

Next slide, please.

So after session, as noted previously, over 180 pieces of tracked legislation passed and new laws impact department operations in varying degrees.

We review everything that passes and make sure that our employees understand how the changes may impact their work.

We also monitor implementation and prepare for the next session.

Uh there may be an unintended consequences from past legislation that need dressing for the actual implementation looks different uh than what was intended originally.

Additionally, crimes and criminals evolve, as does technology.

Continuing to monitor helps direct our approach the next session.

And so just to kind of reiterate that point.

And so it's um a lot of work to read all of the track legislation, summarize it, and make sure that those who need the information receive it so that they can act accordingly.

It's a lot of work.

And as I said, this is a collateral duty for both of us.

Um also I'm remiss I did not mention we are also on our team with Sergeant Heidi Broderson.

She is retiring, and so she opted not to join us today.

But she did a lot of the groundwork in Austin.

I don't want to um not acknowledge that.

So that's an overview of our involvement in the legislative process and about 10 of the 180 bills that passed.

Um we are grateful for the mayor's office of intergovernmental relations, uh, Josh and Alexa and Andy who um support us during all of this and work with us nearly every day to make sure that our efforts are aligned and we deconflict.

Um we're grateful for the opportunity to be able to represent the Houston Police Department and the City of Houston in Austin to make sure that legislation um does not negatively impact our city or our officers or our citizens.

Um with that, we will open to any questions.

Thank you both for the presentation.

Um we were also joined by Vice Chair Jackson and staff from Councilmember Martinez's office and virtually by staff from Councilmember Thomas's office.

Um are there any bills that didn't pass that you wish would have passed that would have supported HPD?

There are a handful out there.

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but all in all, it was a successful session for us.

Um I think in a perfect world, we wouldn't need any laws to pass.

Um but for the most part we had a very successful session.

Uh law enforcement generally did.

This time around, there was a little bit less attention on us, um, which was helpful.

Um but I can't think of any off the top of my head that were necessary.

Um, so to speak.

Great.

Um councilmember.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you both for the presentation.

Um appreciate all your hard work on legislation uh especially.

So I noticed that SB1, which provided 10 million for new police cars is related to item 39 on this week's agenda, I believe.

This allows for application for the item allows for application for a grant for the $10 million to replace 166 police vehicles.

Is that right?

That's correct.

So will this result in a net gain or net loss of police cars or have us remain where we are?

I believe it will be a gain.

We because it will give us 166 cars that we don't currently have.

As Lieutenant Carroll mentioned, we're digging out of a hole from the reduction in manufacturing during COVID.

And so anything that we can get to help us increase our fleet is important.

Okay.

And I understand uh you may not have seen the backup, so to speak, on the on the item, but um looking at it, it does say this uh investment of the 10 million will advance the Department's fleet modernization efforts by replacing aging units with newer, more reliable models, which seems like it's a swap.

166 for 166.

I do not have the backup material, but I will say that we keep our cars as for as as long as we can so that our officers can get around the city where there might be vehicles that if you were driving it, you would take it off the road.

We don't really have that option.

So getting these additional vehicles will allow us to replace the vehicles that need the replacement.

Okay.

And um I know since we approved a new police contract, recruiting is up and retirements are down.

That's what I am hearing.

Yes.

Yes.

How has that affected uh our efforts to put more officers on the streets if if you can if you can say so the new contract has definitely increased interest for um the police academy?

Um just reviewing applicant uh files last week.

I saw a number of them who said that they wanted to come because they knew they were going to make more money, um, which is great because previously those folks were going to different agencies.

Sure.

Um, and so now they're coming here, which is fantastic.

And then on the other side, keeping the officers that we have has really improved with bringing drop back.

That where we were seeing people who are leaving at 20 years, now they have the incentive to stay because they know that they have the drop option.

And so um to your point, we are seeing both an increase in retention and recruiting, which means we have more people on the street.

Um I think I saw numbers a few weeks ago where we were over 5300 classified employees, which is the highest number we've seen in a long time.

That's great.

Uh love to hear that.

Now, how does the uh vehicle situation affect that?

I know we have a lot of two-person units.

Uh, obviously, if we had more cars, we could transition to more one person units.

So have we seen uh uh a change in that at all yet?

We're working that direction, and that's the importance of the 10 million dollars to allow us to buy more vehicles than what the city would that the than what the city's budget would allow us to.

Um but yeah, as we get more people and retain more people, we need more cars, we need more uniforms, we need more of the equipment that allows them to do the job.

So this is an effort to increase that.

Okay.

Um I wanted to ask you as well about uh mental health services, you know, diversion type services that uh are important, I think, and serve uh a good great purpose.

Um with the loss of ARPA funding, um, wanted to uh see if uh that will affect our our ability to uh to address those, you know, folks who are mentally ill uh as we respond to calls and and so forth.

What what can you offer us on that?

Yeah, that's a great question.

And as you know, the reduction of ARPA fundings does impact the uh mental health response.

In fact, I think you um were trying to get stuff in the budget to allow for more funding to try and fill that gap.

But with the reduction in ARPA funds, it did allow us to reevaluate some of our programs and processes, and um it does not appear that it will have a very significant effect on the way that we do um mental health response.

I think we might be changing something with the core tablets that we had been using.

Um we found that those were not all that effective, and so the ARPA funding um will no longer be going towards that project, but it we can redirect funds elsewhere to reinforce the projects that are successful.

So while getting rid of ARPA is a scary thing for us, it did not have the negative impact that we thought it would because it allowed us to reevaluate and strategize what we're doing with the funding.

Okay.

And I understand that overtime for CERT is going to be uh curtailed or go away after August of next year, if I have that right.

Um will the department train more officers uh with those skills or how how will the department react?

Well, every officer in the department is trained in CIT and crisis uh de-escalation.

Um I don't have specifics on whether we will have more folks in the cert units or not, but again, the mental health division will be presenting next month, and they can more specifically address these questions.

All right, super.

All right, thank you very much.

Staff from Mayor Pretem Casis Hayden's office.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Chief Anderson, Lieutenant Carroll, thank you for the presentation.

Um Mayor Pro Team Cas X Hayden, I appreciate um your efforts and presence during the legislative sessions in um support of the bills um that were passed.

Um looking at slide number six, in reference to um Senate Bill 1164, the immediate detention, you know.

Um, with that in mind, do you feel that the um facilities for immediate detention have the capacity to comply um with this legislation?

I think so, yes.

Um, and again to Councilmember Mears' point, more funding and more bed space and all that would be very helpful.

But for our purposes, um, we have seen that Bentov Neuropsychiatric Center, for example, has um recently expanded a little bit um and more bed spaces.

I think there's a ribbon cutting yesterday for similar um issues.

Uh more work can always be done, but I don't believe that this new law will impact the frequency with which we're taking people.

Thank you.

All right, I don't see anyone else in the queue.

Thank you both for the presentation and for the work.

Um I know that it was it was a lot of bills to track and um work on, but thank you so much for everything.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Up next will be um flock safety review and partnership with HPD.

We have um the director of municipal engagement for flock safety, Hector Solomon Valdez.

We are pulling up the presentation.

And you can begin whenever you're ready.

Great, thank you.

Um thank you all for the invitation to speak in front of the committee.

Um as was said, my name is Hector Soleiman Valdez.

I'm the director of municipal engagement with Flock Safety.

Um also wanted to start off by saying thank you to HPD.

Um I know they just hit uh had a great presentation, um, but they're great partners of Flock, and it's been uh wonderful to see all of the success that they've had using our technology uh to solve crimes here uh in Houston.

Um next slide.

I'd love to start off.

I know that we've um been partnered with HPD in the city and many of the council offices uh for several years.

Um but I wanted to start off by providing a little bit of background on flock safety and who we are as a company.

Um we are an Atlanta-based company that was actually founded in response to an uptick in crime in our CEO's neighborhood.

Uh, like many folks in the room and the residents watching, uh, he and his neighbors had uh doorbell cameras, uh video footage, and when these crimes were occurring, went to local law enforcement hoping um that that this was enough evidence for them.

And what he found out was that unfortunately it wasn't.

Um you really needed to have actionable evidence at the hands of uh PD to be able to start an investigation.

And so doing um an extensive amount of research, uh he found out that license plate readers, which is what they were suggesting in this specific crime, um had is technology that had been around for quite some time since the 1970s, and uh to be exact.

Many of us um have our uh license plates read when you go to a shopping center to a garage, et cetera.

Um but what he also found out is that this technology was extremely expensive, and so um as you can imagine, he's thinking of a solution for his neighborhood.

He's thinking of something that will help be a public-private partnership, and so seeing the cost uh and maintenance um issues involved in this, um, that's where we got our start, which is in the license plate reader space as a software as a service type model um where neighborhoods uh could uh purchase license plate readers that would then feed into their local law enforcement.

Uh so since starting off with HOAs and neighborhoods, we've expanded to serve law enforcement.

Um we are protecting over a thousand five hundred businesses, so have a robust uh network of commercial cameras and have are now helping solve two thousand eight hundred or more crimes a day using flock technology, right?

So something that law enforcement, um, if you ask them, um, is a very very valuable tool.

Um, in fact, a large percentage of law enforcement throughout the country is using our technology every day to solve crime.

Uh 15% of reported crime is actually um being solved using Flock today, which is something that we're really proud of.

And now um we consist of over 6,000 communities, law enforcement, uh, commercial businesses and neighborhoods working together uh to solve crime.

Uh and next slide.

Since our uh beginnings in license uh with licensed paint readers and through working really closely with law enforcement, um, we've expanded to become a full public safety platform.

Um, and we work with multiple different departments at cities, uh, whether it's economic development teams, um, in tourist uh touristic towns that are counting the types of vehicles that are coming in to to know what kind of electric vehicle infrastructure do we need to build, or uh their traffic and planning operations, where is the traffic on any given time, right?

So those analytic tools that are helpful to emergency responders using our drones as a first response to uh help get their parks up and running within a day of a storm.

I live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Really proud to say uh Dunwitty is a partner of ours, used uh the full public safety platform, our cameras and other technologies to more efficiently uh respond uh to Hurricane Aline and have all of their parks up and running within a day.

So really expanding um beyond uh a tool that's just for law enforcement or to solve crimes, but really to help cities work smarter um and solve um quality of life issues as well as crime and and and plan ahead for the future.

Uh next slide.

As I mentioned at the beginning, we started off in our CEO's neighborhood, and privacy and local control of data has been it has been and is paramount to everything that we do.

I really um think it's important to know that data is owned uh and controlled a hundred percent uh by uh customers.

Flock will never and does not have the ability to uh share that information and will never sell that information.

Um private customers, right?

We talked, I talked a lot about um the fact that we have a network of uh uh it's a public-private partnership.

Those private customers do not have access to city information.

Uh they are providing their information to law enforcement in the uh uh event that their information is needed to solve a crime.

And then our retention policy is really important to note.

Um, we've really pioneered the 30-day retention, which gives law enforcement enough time to solve crime while protecting privacy.

All of that of the data is hard deleted and not retrievable after that 30-day mark.

Uh, and then again, uh Flock does not have access to any of the data.

Your agency, you as policymakers have full control of what sharing looks like uh in your in your city.

And then also as an organization, Flock takes um cybersecurity um extremely um uh uh closely uh and we are a SOC 2 SOC 3 compliant um organization, all of our devices are NDAA compliant.

Um and next slide.

And we have partnered um with both MAD as we've solved a lot of um drunking driving cases where folks are leaving the scenes helping solve those crimes.

We're really proud of that partnership, and then also really really proud of our partnership with NICMIC.

We've actually helped solve over a thousand cases of missing persons, both amber alerts and silver alerts.

HPD is receiving those alerts within 20 seconds if a vehicle is associated with one of those type of alerts.

Um, really proud of that uh that specific portion of our technology and our partnership with NICMIC.

Uh next slide.

And also ensuring that technology becomes a way that law enforcement can work with all communities and provide objective information based on vehicles, based on objective information.

Um here's a quote from NAACP in in Oakland really kind of touting the ability of technology to do so.

And next slide.

And so that's a little bit of background on Flock in general, but I wanted to dive in to our partnership in Houston.

Next slide.

And something as I was doing my research and as in my time at Flock that I've noticed that is very unique about Houston is really the strength of that private um public partnership uh in your uh Flock program.

There are many businesses, shopping centers in Houston providing access to cameras to HPD neighborhoods and an uh large amount of your MUDs, as well as districts themselves funding these cameras.

So council members, so that partnership has really led to a large and robust program.

And I think that that is something, you know, with my knowledge of all the different large cities in the country that's very unique about Houston, where it's been really the community getting together to build a program.

And that also includes virtually every jurisdiction around you that has flock cameras and Harris County as well.

And next slide.

And so just what does that look like a little bit in numbers?

Our partnership started in 2021.

As I mentioned, really unique to Houston is the amount of support that the council has provided to this programs through your discretionary funds.

7.4 million dollars have been recovered in stolen vehicles.

As you can imagine, you know, it's with public safety technology as policymakers is how how do we judge if something is effective, right?

There's a dollars and cents uh uh side of this, right?

There's 7.54 million dollars in vehicles, folks that are getting their vehicles returned to them, but then there's all those other cases of homicides that have been solved locally and and other uh uh serious crimes.

Uh and then uh just want to mention it's through my uh communication with uh Houston PD, um, which I know that they report out to you all, they've solved several serious crimes, whether it's burglaries, homicides, and um even um organized retail theft here locally.

Uh next slide.

And so I know that Houston PD um reports to you all directly, and I know that you guys have heard a lot about the success at the local level.

I thought it'd actually be uh good to talk a little bit about that, what that impact looks nationally, right?

So that you all are hearing about um the part of the network that you are are directly impacting here in Houston, but what does that look like nationally?

Next slide, and what kind of cases are we solving?

Um many of you may have actually seen this case.

This one's one out of Los Angeles.

There was an individual targeting um the unhoused there and uh had actually um committed several murders.

As I mentioned earlier, right, in the Houston area, there's many uh communities using uh Flock.

Same goes for the Los Angeles area.

This person was caught in collaboration between the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Beverly Hills and Los Angeles PD of really a full regional effort uh to capture uh the you know vehicle.

They saw it in one area and then they were able to make a safe uh stop uh across the county.

Next slide.

And then as I mentioned earlier, you know, not only are we solving cases uh of missing um and endangered children and elderly individuals, um, but one of the areas that I'm very proud of as a former uh uh transportation planner um is helping solve pedestrian violence or um hidden runs, as as many folks call them.

Um this is one out of Peoria where officers have saw uh observed a vehicle traveling at high per at a high speed, they did not pursue.

And that's really important to note about this type of technology.

This gives law enforcement the ability to back off, understand where that vehicle is, make safe arrests, um, and then um follow up on that vehicle.

Unfortunately, in this instance, there that vehicle um uh hit a civilian or a resident, I should say, uh, and but they were able to quickly follow up and find that vehicle and make a safe arrest again um uh when that vehicle um was in an area that they could uh stop it.

Next uh slide.

Uh as we know, gun violence, um, can't uh campus safety is uh unfortunately an issue a big issue in our country.

Um this is out of um Emory University, which is in Atlanta where I live, um, where uh the PD received a call about a student um entering campus with the firearm.

Um they were able to identify that vehicle through a temporary tag, something that our technology is able to help uh find.

Um also important to note you don't even need a tag, you can also search by the what the vehicle looks like and then make again a safe arrest very quickly before that could have devolved into a tragedy.

And then um next slide.

And this is uh the last slide.

I actually started working at Flock in June of 2020, a couple months before this case, and I um you know constantly think back on this uh specific incident um because this is one of the first amber alerts that we actually knew about um at Flock.

As I mentioned, this is some a type of uh crime that we um are helping solve frequently.

But I remember when we heard about this, just thinking how impactful this technology could be.

Um, because in this specific case, it was a stranger on stranger abduction, something that is very rare.

Um the mother that's pictured here was pushing her child in his stroller when two massed and armed individuals um came up to her.

She fought valiantly, tried to keep her child with her, but they were able to get away.

Um fortunately though, Chambly, Georgia is one of us, one of our first customers and the Atlanta area, um, you know, really kind of one of the first adopters, and they were able to using a description of the vehicle, not no plate, um, just the fact that it was a red pickup truck, start investigating, putting out an amber alert, and putting an alert um out to uh uh fellow law enforcement agencies in the region and getting that child back to his mother by 6 p.m.

So within six hours.

So really impactful way with this technology, um, with just a description, no plate in that type of incident, right?

Be able to help investigators jump in and and um find the missing child, which um as you can imagine must have been one of the most horrible days um of of both of their lives.

Luckily, he was young enough that he's made whole and won't remember.

Um I gave you all a ton of information.

Hopefully, um that was good background on Flock.

I know we've been partners with you all for a while, so thank you.

Thanks to HPD for for all the work that they do and would love to answer any questions that you all have uh for me today.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Um I think that we hear from HPD pretty much daily about how the license plate readers are the game changer when it comes to solving crime in Houston.

So we appreciate that.

Um I think Councilmember Huffman and I have the most license plate readers um in the city, so we get to see the positive effects of that every single day.

So um thank you for that.

Um Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks for the presentation.

Appreciate it.

So curious to know what what is the typical way this works.

Does HPD have access to the system or does an officer contact uh Flock representative and say, hey, can you search for this or at this location, et cetera?

That's a really important question.

Um we uh install the cameras.

Only HPD has access to the cameras that, for example, council purchases.

Um also important to note that when an HPD officer searches the system, they enter in a search reason, typically a case number that's part of an audit that's available and that your administrators regularly um check uh to ensure that um all of their work is within uh policy.

And um I noticed on one of your slides that you mentioned it, uh Flock automatically deletes data.

This is on slide four.

After 30 days by default.

Have you looked into whether or not that complies with our record management policy and um other uh state laws that might apply?

Yes.

Yeah, so there's no national standard.

That standard was put in place by Flock in an effort to uh provide a tool that's uh useful for law enforcement but protects privacy.

Um Flock itself uh leaves it up to local jurisdictions to either uh reduce time or add time.

Um some cities such as San Jose and Oakland and California actually have a one-year retention.

A lot of times cities that um choose to do so is um due to staffing levels, um, how fast you can put a detective on a case, et cetera.

Um but flock's retention uh will always align with local policies um and and can be either um expanded or reduced uh depending on what policymakers decide.

So in one of your slides uh addresses a hit and run case that was solved.

It was in another city.

And um actually coincidentally, there was just a news report about the low uh solving rate on hit and run cases by HPD.

I'm just wondering how often, if you know, HPD uses the flock cameras to try to solve hit and run cases.

I I do know that they are in this block system every single day, um, every single minute, probably.

So I would assume that this is probably one of the first tools that they look at because it's a vehicle involved.

Um I don't want to speak for HPD, but obviously one of the ways that the things that they would do is depending on what kind of information, as soon as they have a lead on that vehicle, search it, or at least the geography, and then that's how the investigation would envelop.

But this is definitely a tool that is commonly used to solve that issue.

And to your point, it is unfortunately all too common and hard to solve.

Great.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Jackson.

Thank you, Chair.

Um thank you for the presentation and for giving us an overview of the flock cameras.

And um you highlighted quite a few success stories from other locations, and unlike my colleagues, I haven't received any success stories.

I've um purchased flock cameras with my district.

And so just curious as partners, do they share success?

Do HPB share success stories with you?

If so, can you give us the success story that that deals with Houston or District B or one of the um areas that have flock cameras?

That would be great to hear.

No, um I they've shared uh some stories with us, including the um success that they've had uh with uh stolen vehicles.

Um I have spoken to the the project managers um so to speak, and they're more than happy um to share those with you all individually.

Um obviously don't want to speak for them, um, but we do rely on them providing us those stories.

Um so yeah, so no stories.

Uh you just have a broad content that they basically you know have found stolen cars, uh, but you can't give us any particular area or um my understanding is you know, and I know all you know pretty much all of the districts have um supported this program, every single district they've solved various types of crimes, not just stolen vehicle crimes, some quality of life crimes, homicides.

Um I would uh you know I'm I know that they would be willing to share that information if requested.

I mean, you've given us a presentation, so I think it'd be great if you can share, you know, the success of purchasing flock counties from your company on how it is benefiting our districts.

I mean, I'm glad it's happening, you know, other cities are benefiting, but it would have been good to hear happening here at Houston.

Okay.

Yep, I will follow up to get some specific stories for you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Chair Jackson, just a personal anecdote, my car was stolen and it was found because of the license plate reader.

So I've seen that success personally, but more importantly, we have had um murder suspects caught in district A because of these cameras and you know, higher profile crimes.

So we've seen that success every day in district A, but we're happy to um get with HPD and get some of those success stories um over to you as well.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Councilmember Huffman.

Thank you, and thank you for coming forward today.

I actually wanted to share with you some of my success stories that have happened at District G because it really has been a game changer.

We know that if you know recruitment is hard for HPD and if retention is hard, then we have to rely on technology.

And so um we've had multiple success stories.

One, there was a child abducted coming home from school, and uh she was recovered in real time because of the flock camera system in District G.

There was a actually a murder in River Oaks, and um it was about 5 30 p.m., people were getting off work.

This white sedan, that's the only tip that really flock had.

This white sedan came in, the murder occurred, people were were there because they were getting off work and then left.

Um this was a case that HPD said that they had no leads to besides this white sedan coming in and out.

But because of the flock camera system, they were able to see well, this white sedan came in with one set of plates.

After the murder, I guess they changed plates and were caught leaving with a second set of plates.

That car ended up being registered um to a rental car company in New Bromfels, and the murder suspects were were caught in that case.

HPD said that they would have put in so many man hours trying to come up with leads um, which probably would have gone nowhere, but but for flock, you know, this murder was solved within 24 hours.

We also um there was a shooting in the French court in Louisiana.

When I first put in Flock in the district, I was thinking, you know, this is gonna make district G safe.

But what I've realized over time, and since they've been operating in our district, is that it's not just keeping District G safe or even keeping the city of Houston safe.

We are we are catching people from other jurisdictions.

So there was a shooting in the French quarter in Louisiana, multiple guns were used, multiple suspects, and the next night that car was picked up on a district G flock camera.

The suspects were still inside, and the guns that were used in the shooting during the French quarter were still in the vehicle.

So that was a huge success.

And then one more, a great one.

Last national night out, um, there was supposed to be a fun run in Memorial Park here in Houston.

And HPD received a credible tip that there was going to potentially be a mass shooting in Memorial Park.

And based on the credible tip that they got, they apprehended the vehicle going into Memorial Park on a district chief lock camera.

So I can't say enough wonderful things about Flock.

I really feel like it has changed the way we HPD conducts investigations, the way we're able to solve crimes, and um I couldn't be happier.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

And I, you know, again, as I mentioned in my presentation, I think what is very unique and interesting is just how long you as elected officials have supported this program individually through your district.

So thank you on behalf of Flock, but also just on for your community should know that it's it's been very interesting to see um how involved the council here has been with our program.

Thank you for sharing that, Councilmore Huffman.

Staff from Mayor Pro Tem Cassatum's office.

Thank you, Madam Chair Hector.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um I know you recently met with Mayor Pro Tem Castum, and we're looking forward to adding some additional cameras in District K.

And just want to uh extend um publicly.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing this presentation um in this public safety committee meeting.

But thank you for the presentation.

Thank you so much.

Um can you talk a little bit about some other technology um items that you have available?

I know that there's the Raven cameras and there might be some other options as well.

Yeah, it's Flock is a full public safety platform.

Um I think uh what I'm really excited about is the emergency management aspect of this technology and also how this can be a full city solution.

So our drone as a first responder um program uh is really unique uh in that our drones uh will be able to be on a scene what we've seen over 90% of the time before um a police car, and as you can imagine, this helps um everyone involved be safer, um, but helps other departments potentially, right?

This is a f a fire response um tool.

This is a emergency preparedness response tool.

And then also our audio detection.

Um, what we was very unique about our audio detection is that it um pairs with our license plate readers um to provide um actionable evidence.

Um, because what we see nationwide is that with gun violence, a lot of times it's not called in.

Um, and so not only are you not getting there to save a life, but you're not getting the evidence to prosecute and follow up on these um individuals that are committing this, these crimes, which many times is a very small subsection of a neighborhood.

And our audio detection is also very interesting, and um, because it also is able to detect um uh screeching tires and other quality of life issues as well.

Um, we see that street takeovers not only are they a nuisance but are also very dangerous, and so that's um you know, an area that we've invested in uh in our machine learning to help law enforcement as well.

Great, thank you so much.

I don't see anyone else in the queue.

Thank you again for the presentation.

Have a great day.

We'll move on to um public comments.

First, we have Alfredo Dominguez, but hey, how you doing?

Uh council members.

Uh, I'm really happy I get the chance to talk, and hopefully the the flock guy's still in here.

But um I'm I'm really shocked at hearing that presentation, especially after the not addressing any of the concerns that the chronicle raised in their recent report on Flock, in particular the fact that um 66% of the time that people are doing search queries are not actually listing any case number or any identifying information, they're just saying investigation or they're typing random letters into the keyboard like ASD.

Um it's shocking because we are essentially in Houston in the city where you have to drive everywhere, and in a city where like license plates are directly tied to the gross majority, most people only have one license plate.

You're essentially signing people up for the people monitoring service.

If we if we came in here and said, and Flock presented uh a system for face scanning and using AI generation to face scan and monitor Houstonians across the city, no one here, I hope would would be in favor of that, but that's essentially what you're signing people up for without their consent, right?

You you're asking people to to sign up for a system that allows people to be monitored across the city, and no real procedure, no real oversight is being handled to ensure that that's happening.

Flock, for example, says that they're not working with immigration, they have no contracts with ice, but we know for a fact that across the country um iCE officers are asking law local law enforcement officers to do I searches using Flock's cameras because there is no real oversight on what kind of searches they can do, and they kind of have free range access onto the platform.

They only need to just fill in the text box after the fact that they can just say investigation and that fulfills the requirement for the system.

This is being used.

If we're continuing to hear HPDs not cooperating with ICE, they're not actually helping immigration enforcement.

Why are we giving them more tools that can be used in this variety?

Why are we talking about expanding the these monitoring and surveillance softwares in a way in which like further tracks and further changes the like way in which Eustonians have to live in the city in a city where you have to drive everywhere?

I'm just shocked at that how this whole presentation has kind of come down.

I'm really disappointed to see that we're continuing to expand the amount of surveillance, especially in the time where at the federal level, these communities at Houstonians like um like immigrant people, like poor folks, like uh black and brown folks.

The these people are continually under attack by the federal level, and we're installing cameras to make it really easy for them to be monitored at the local level.

And when and how, like a flock like any other company is an American company, when and how does the federal government step in and say, actually, we want access to all those cameras.

Actually, we want to be able to monitor all these people in the city.

And what are we signing ourselves up for when we opt into systems like this of our own volition with our own money?

And like I said, um, I'm here with Rice Houston.

I think we're continually obviously we were against the shot spotter contract, and we're continually against increased monitoring, increased surveillance on the communities, because we know that regardless of what the actual intent stated, like you're saying, oh, we're tracking Hin Runnington.

It's the reality, and and we need to talk about how it's actually used in practice.

And and I'm really disappointed to see that that this is something that the the city is choosing to support pretty much with open arms.

Um, and I think um I'm excited to continue to come here and testify about this and hopefully turn out more people to talk more about this um after hearing this presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments.

And I think that the um the oversight aspect of it needs to be addressed through HPD.

This was just an overview from the company's perspective and the tool that they give to HPD to use.

So any of those concerns we would need to address with HPD.

So we're happy to work with you on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Christopher Rivera on virtually.

See on you can press star six.

Hello, TV.

Yes, we can hear you.

Go ahead.

Okay, great.

Great.

Yes, um, my name is Christopher Rivera.

I work at Texas Rights Project, also member of the Rice Houston Coalition, and we're very concerned about the Flock Security Cameras usage.

Uh we noticed that similar to Shotfire, that this surveillance tool we use to target low-income black and brown individuals without providing any substantial results.

There's also concerns that Eastonians' rights and privacy are at risk with flock sharing this information with private data brokers and potentially violate our fourth amendment, which protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures.

We believe that flocks will be flock systems will be abused by HPD because we have seen officers not following protocol, and there is no oversight or penalties for the misuse of the surveillance tool.

Over the last 12 months, 1,500 individuals connected with HPD conducted more than 470,000 flock searches.

Two-thirds of the searches queries failed to justify or connect the search to a specific crime or investigation.

Only one third of the searches use terms connected to law enforcement investigations, such as stolen or warrant.

In thousands of other searches, police officers use surveillance tools in random ways.

The officers often fail to justify the reasoning why they use the flock system.

I would insert ASDF as Alfredo had mentioned, which are the first few letters on the keyboard as their rationale for using the system.

Nearly three 300,000 searches did not justify the use of surveillance tools.

Flock usage by HPD has doubled in the past year to nearly 15,000 weekly searches.

As HPD uses this tool more frequently, officers are less likely to tie the searches to specific law enforcement purposes.

The justification for the searches has decreased from 44% to less than a third, allowing police unfettered access to individual saving routines and travel patterns without probable cause.

This tool also allows police to go beyond their jurisdiction to criminalize women seeking any medical procedure in Johnson County.

The sheriff used flock to track a woman who was seeking an abortion.

The sheriff had access to cameras, even on the wise where Illinois where abortion is legal and was able to use information to track the women's every movement.

Flock security cameras are also expanding the HPD and ICE collaboration, raising concerns from our immigrant communities who are living in constant fear that HPD will use this tool to help ICE people with their loved ones.

Investigative reporters have already revealed that ICE agents work with DTS and local law enforcement to access Flock cameras to track immigrant communities for deportation.

We believe that HPD will or already has work with ICE to voluntarily hand voluntarily hand this information over to fuel more deportation and fear.

Please cancel this 6.4 million dollar contract with Flock Security and remove the cameras in place.

This money can be best served, you know, investing in immigrant communities, giving them services and protecting immigrants and not deporting them.

Uh thank you for your time.

I look forward to working with this and then uh comment on HP oversight.

We tried to uh regulate HPD and have them stop the abuses, but they continue to do so.

So I don't know how we'll be able to stop them from abusing the Flock system.

Thank you so much for your comments.

All right, I don't see anyone else in the queue.

So our next scheduled meeting will be on Monday, November 3rd at 10 o'clock a.m.

Please mark your calendars.

Our next committee meeting will not be on a Tuesday.

It will be on Monday, November 3rd at 10 a.m.

Thank you.

We stand adjourned.