Houston has had 74 Flock cameras vandalized this year. HPD answered the replacement-cost question back in July.

Houston has had 74 Flock license plate cameras vandalized in 2026, nearly double the count from a month earlier. ABC13 reported Thursday that the city would not say who pays to replace them. The same station reported the answer in July, from HPD.

Why it matters

Replacement is not free and it is not Flock’s problem. The reinstall fees in Flock’s Texas contracts are billed to the government that signed them, which means the money comes out of a police budget funded by Houston taxpayers.

Residents who never wanted the cameras pay for them twice, once for the contract and again for the repairs. That is worth saying plainly, and so is the fact that the people cutting them down are the reason for the second bill.

By the numbers

74 HPD Flock cameras vandalized in 2026 as of August 28.
38 as of July 28. That is 36 more cameras in the 31 days between the two counts.
$350 to $800 per camera to replace, a figure Flock gave ABC13, for cameras without a protection plan.
$25,900 to $59,200 for 74 cameras at that range, before any pole or install cost. ABC13 published the per-camera range and did not multiply it.
$800 for a camera, $500 for a damaged pole and $2,000 for an advanced pole in the reinstall fee schedule attached to Fort Bend County’s Flock agreement dated January 23, 2024.
About $4.6 million paid by Houston to Flock since 2022, according to ABC13.
$868,900 for Harris County’s separate renewal, which runs through June 2027.

What the coverage buried

ABC13’s September 11 story says the city did not immediately clarify what coverage applies or who bears the replacement cost. ABC13’s own July 8 story says HPD told the station that repair and replacement costs are covered by the department budget. Two months apart, one newsroom, the same question, and the later story does not mention the earlier answer.

The contract language that would settle it is already public in a neighboring county. Fort Bend County’s agreement reads: “In the event that Flock Hardware is lost, stolen, or damaged, Customer may request a replacement of Flock Hardware at a fee according to the reinstall fee schedule.” Customer is the county. No outlet has published Houston’s version of that schedule, and the city has not been asked for it on the record.

The other side

Cutting down a camera is a crime, and the cost lands on people who had no part in the decision. HPD has an open investigation and no arrests have been announced. Nobody has been charged.

The city also has a fair excuse. Which cameras carry a protection plan is a contract detail a press office may not have at hand on deadline, so “did not immediately clarify” can be accurate rather than evasive. That holds for one afternoon. It does not hold when the answer sits in the same station’s July archive and the fee schedule is a record the city can produce on request.

The pressure here does not run along a party line. Kora Fortun of Stand Up Houston told ABC13 people are fed up that officials are not responding. Manvel councilman Harry Opliger said there is nothing a user can look at to show the tool is working. Conroe police chief Jon Buckholtz told the station he supports the cameras and has seen no evidence of misuse. Three officials, three positions, and none of them sorts neatly by party.

What to watch

Whether HPD releases a September vandalism count, and whether the pace of 36 a month holds.
Whether the city produces its Flock reinstall fee schedule, which would convert the $350 to $800 range into an actual invoice total.
Whether Houston’s next Flock renewal reaches City Council with a line for replacement costs in it.
Harris County’s contract, which has carried a 30-day exit clause since June and runs through June 2027.

Bottom line

The vandalism number is real and it is climbing. The cost question is not actually open, it was answered in July: the police department budget pays. What is still missing is the invoice, and that is a document, not an opinion.

Sources

Editorial