At its June 3 meeting, the San Marcos City Council denied the addition of license plate recognition (LPR) surveillance cameras.
The San Marcos Police Department (SMPD) seeked a contract amendment with Flock Group Inc., an automotive safety equipment manufacturer, for the addition of LPR equipment and software for a cost of $124,068.49 for the first year with the option to renew the contract for three one-year extensions.
There are currently 14 LPR surveillance cameras in San Marcos and if approved, the contract would allow the addition of 19 LPR surveillance cameras for a cost of $77,000.
According to the Flock Safety website, data collected by Flock Safety is stored for a 30-day retention period with customers holding complete ownership of the data.
“Keeping our city safe and crime free is high on my list of priorities, and we are in a very high crime area with interstate 35 running through our city,” San Marcos Resident, Cindy Laird said during the meeting’s citizens comments.
Some citizens shared concerns over how the data collected by the surveillance cameras is used and opposed the addition of more cameras around the city.
“There is no reason that San Marcos needs to have 33 flock cameras the city of Austin, with the population tenfold of that of San Marcos only has 40 and allowing our police department to operate 33 cameras, just seven less than Austin, which I learned today is the city with the most Flock cameras in the state, is complete overreach,” San Marcos resident, Sam Benavides said.
Councilmember Amanda Rodriguez emphasized the importance behind understanding how this technology is being utilized and asked the council to vote against the expansion of the contract.
Rodriguez recommended further conversation with SMPD or Flock representatives before any action is made.
“We are seeing things as it was mentioned earlier, that were once never thought to be permissible and now are, we are seeing people literally being disappeared off of our streets, and they are not doing that without the help of things like what we’re talking about today.” Rodriguez said.
In a 5-to-2 vote, the expansion of the contract was denied.
The council also received a presentation and held a public hearing for a Preferred Scenario Amendment and associated zoning change to construct a data center.
The request made by Arbrust & Brown, PLLC on behalf of Highlander SM One, LLC and Donald and Germaine Tuff would set the data center in approximately 199.49 acres of land generally located on the western side of Francis Harris Lane.
During the meeting, citizens shared their concerns over the proposed data center projects and emphasized the dangers that they can pose for the city’s environment, river and drought situation.
“You’re responsible for making a life changing decision that will affect all of our futures, especially mine. I don’t want to live next to a data center and I will never be able to duplicate my home of the last 25 years, there is nothing like it anywhere, nothing within two hours of San Marcos is similar to what we have and to what my neighbors have,” San Marcos resident Tori Martin said.
Virginia Parker, executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation, said SMRF is currently tracking seven proposed data centers in the San Marcos River watershed and would not be taking a stance on the ordinance yet.
“What we can say is this 904 Francis Harris would be connected to the Hays Energy Power Plant, which is an important point, because that power plant currently uses 1.5 million gallons a day of treated wastewater from the city of San Marcos, nobody knows how much water the creation of power actually takes.” Parker said.
The council will receive the first reading and act on this item during its July 1 meeting.
The San Marcos City Council meets at 6 p.m. every first and third Tuesday of each month. For more information, visit its website.
