Defiant Sheriff Vows to Install Flock Cameras With or Without Approval of Commissioners' Court

SAN ANGELO, TX — Tom Green County commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to accept a portion of a $127,762 state grant for a motor vehicle theft investigator position while stripping out funding for Flock Safety cameras, citing privacy concerns and questions about who can access the data.  

Chief Deputy Roger Looka made clear the decision would not stop the sheriff from installing Flock cameras. He told the court that if commissioners rejected the cameras as part of the grant, Sheriff Nick Hanna would simply install them using money from the sheriff’s own budget.  

“The sheriff is not willing to cut Flock out of the deal,” Looka said. He later confirmed the office would move forward regardless of the court’s action.  

The grant, tied to Senate Bill 224, requires a $25,000 county match and was primarily intended to fund the salary and benefits of a new investigator position. Roughly $34,770 of the original request was earmarked for six additional Flock cameras. After discussion, the court removed the camera “equipment” line item, reducing the grant total by $28,975.  

County Judge Lane Carter repeatedly defended Flock cameras, noting that the last three major local crimes had been solved with help from Flock cameras and that similar systems already operate in Walmart and Lowe’s parking lots and on state highways. “There’s a negative perception about Flock cameras,” Carter acknowledged, but he argued the benefits outweighed the concerns.  

Commissioners voiced deeper unease. Precinct 4 Commissioner Shawn Nanny warned of incremental loss of liberty, invoking Benjamin Franklin’s warning that those who give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither. “Where government is surveilling you, it’s a different game,” Nanny said. He later compared the expansion of surveillance to a dog whose chain is shortened a little at a time.  

Precinct 3 Commissioner Rick Bacon and Precinct 2 Commissioner Chad Decker pressed for specifics on data access. Looka said patrol deputies would only see alerts through the Axon system in their vehicles, while Investigator Crawford and a criminal analyst would have broader access. He maintained that the department is “too busy catching criminals” to misuse the data and dismissed Nanny's privacy objections as a “Facebook argument.”  

Nanny pointed to ongoing litigation in Bexar County over Flock systems and noted that grants often come with strings. Decker said constituents were worried about being tracked. Carter claimed other law enforcement agencies would gain access to data from any Tom Green County cameras, though Looka noted the sheriff’s office currently has no Flock access because it has no cameras of its own.  

After an extended discussion and a brief recess, Nanny moved to approve the grant without the Flock equipment line item. Commissioner Ralph Hoelscher woke up and seconded. The motion passed 4-1, with Carter the sole “no” vote.  

Looka’s insistence that the sheriff’s office would buy and install the cameras with or without grant funding left commissioners seemingly having little practical power to stop the sheriff from installing the county's share of Flock cameras around town. Chief Deputy Look said, even though the cameras were stripped out of the grant, the money would come from the sheriff’s budget, which does not require further commissioners' court approval for this purpose.  

The grant period begins Sept. 1.