Glossary

These are the terms this site uses most, defined once here so the rest of the site can stay short. If a definition looks wrong or incomplete, tell us and we will correct it.

Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR)

A camera system that automatically photographs and reads every passing vehicle's license plate. Each read is logged with the date, time, and location and uploaded to a searchable database. An ALPR scans every driver who passes, not only drivers suspected of anything.

Flock Safety

The brand name of Flock Group Inc., a surveillance technology company that sells AI-powered ALPR cameras to police departments across the country. Flock's customers are connected through a national network, so data captured in one city can potentially be searched by agencies elsewhere. Murphy's cameras are Flock cameras.

DeFlock

A community-driven movement and crowd-sourced map hosted at deflock.me that documents ALPR camera locations across the country. DeFlock Murphy is a separate, resident-led local campaign inspired by the same transparency goal. It is not operated by or affiliated with deflock.me, the City of Murphy, or Flock Group Inc.

Vehicle Fingerprint

A term Flock trademarked for the profile its machine vision builds from a vehicle's make, model, color, and distinguishing features. Flock's own materials describe identifying vehicles this way even when the plate is not visible, which is why "it only reads plates" understates what the system does.

Hot List

A list of license plates flagged for alerts, such as vehicles reported stolen or tied to a warrant. Flock checks every passing plate against hot lists, but the system does not discard the reads that do not match. Every plate is logged either way.

Reciprocal Data Sharing

Flock's default arrangement under which participating agencies can search each other's camera data. A plate captured by a camera in Murphy can, depending on network settings, be searched by agencies well outside the city, not only by the Murphy Police Department.

Data Retention

The length of time captured plate reads are stored before they are deleted. Retention periods vary by agency and are a basic policy choice a city makes when it adopts Flock. Murphy has not publicly disclosed its retention period.

Fourth Amendment

The provision of the U.S. Constitution that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Whether warrantless, always-on ALPR tracking of every driver amounts to the kind of search the Fourth Amendment was meant to check is disputed and is being litigated in federal court.

Carpenter v. United States (2018)

A U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that an aggregated record of a person's movements over time, in that case cell-phone location data, requires a warrant. Advocates for ALPR limits argue the same reasoning should apply to a searchable database of everywhere a car has driven.

Mass Surveillance

Systematic monitoring of a broad population rather than specific suspects. The term applies to Flock because the cameras log every passing vehicle by default, not just vehicles connected to an investigation.

Warrant

A court order authorizing a search, issued only on a showing of probable cause to a judge. Flock database searches do not currently require one, which is the core policy question this campaign raises.

Senate Bill 224 (Catalytic Converter Theft grant)

A 2023 Texas law, known as the Deputy Darren Almendarez Act, that created a grant program funded by a $1 fee added to every Texas auto insurance policy. The program was intended to help local agencies fight catalytic converter theft. Murphy bought its Flock cameras with an SB 224 grant.

Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority (MVCPA)

A Texas state board, housed within the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and made up mostly of members appointed by the governor, that administers SB 224 grants. A Texas Tribune investigation (August 2026) found the MVCPA steered at least $30 million of that fund into more than 3,200 Flock cameras statewide, funding well beyond the catalytic-converter theft the fee was sold to voters as addressing.

Texas Public Information Act

The Texas open-records law that gives the public the right to request records from government bodies, including contracts, costs, and correspondence. It is the tool residents can use to seek Murphy's Flock contract, camera count, and cost, none of which the city has disclosed on its own.

For more on how these terms apply here, see the FAQ and the facts.