{
  "id": 12243227,
  "title": "Texas city demands $2M for public records on Flock usage",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/texas-city-demands-2m-for-public-records-on-flock-usage-12243227",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-05T20:31:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Ars Technica",
    "slug": "ars-technica",
    "url": "https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/texas-city-demands-2m-for-public-records-on-flock-usage/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Texas city of North Richland Hills has demanded a staggering $2.3 million from a group seeking public records on the usage of Flock, an AI-enabled camera system. This demand has sparked bipartisan criticism against Flock, as anti-surveillance advocates and media outlets are being asked to pay exorbitant fees to access information about police department usage and potential abuse of the system.\n\nPhil Mynona, representing the Texas Privacy Coalition, filed the request using a pseudonym and expressed disbelief at the fee. He claimed that retrieving information about \"about a terabyte worth of communications about errors, misuse, and effectiveness of the Flock system\" would require approximately 14 years of labor at a rate of $15 per hour. Mynona described the fee as \"ludicrous\" and designed to discourage public records requests.",
  "summary": "Prices of public records tracking cops' use of Flock go up as backlash swells.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Ars Technica Policy",
        "title": "Texas city demands $2M for public records on Flock usage",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/texas-city-demands-2m-for-public-records-on-flock-usage",
        "published": "2026-10-05T20:31:12.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}