Texas Deputies Queried Flock Safety Data in Abortion-Related Death Investigation

Records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by privacy advocates and published in October 2025 reveal that law enforcement deputies in Texas used Flock Safety's automated license plate reader network to track a vehicle as part of a death investigation connected to a self-administered abortion.

The documents, reviewed by reproductive rights organizations and civil liberties groups, show queries conducted against Flock Safety's regional network in 2024 linked to an investigation that authorities classified as a "death investigation." Court documents filed in related proceedings make clear the investigation concerned a pregnant woman who had self-administered an abortion drug.

Texas, which has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, allows for criminal investigation in certain abortion-related circumstances. Critics immediately seized on the documents as evidence of how surveillance infrastructure built for vehicle theft recovery is being repurposed for reproductive rights enforcement.

"This is exactly what we warned about when these systems were deployed," said Aimee Arrambide, Executive Director of Avow Texas. "Plate readers that can track where you've been are now tools for investigating pregnant people. That has to stop."

Flock Safety declined to comment specifically on the case, citing ongoing law enforcement sensitivities. The company has previously stated that its technology is a neutral tool and that decisions about how to use it rest entirely with subscribing agencies.

The revelation has intensified calls for federal legislation that would prohibit the use of ALPR data in investigations related to reproductive healthcare decisions. Several states with abortion protections, including California and Illinois, have enacted laws specifically prohibiting cross-state data sharing that could be used for reproductive rights enforcement -- laws that the Flock Safety incidents in those states have now shown are not being reliably enforced.