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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered every state agency to stop funding Flock cameras.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: Flock cameras are license plate readers that use AI to log a vehicle’s make, model, and color, right down to bumper stickers and body damage. Agencies can open their cameras to other departments, which is how the company ended up with a network of 120,000 cameras in every state but Alaska. That national lookup program is a major issue among many Americans because it allows a department anywhere in the country to search another department’s data. It has also fueled an anti-Flock movement that is now shaping political races nationwide.

What’s going on now: Governor Abbott, who is up for reelection, gave the order Thursday night, telling state agencies that no state money can go toward Flock cameras. “To the extent that cities get any funding for those cameras, most of it comes from the federal government. To the extent any funding comes from Texas agencies, those agencies are clarifying that those funds cannot be used for Flock cameras,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said.

Abbott framed it as part of a broader sweep on Glenn Beck’s show Friday morning. “This is something that is easily containable, easily controllable, and we’re ensuring that whether it be through criminal crackdowns, whether it be through cancellation of contracts, whatever the case may be, Flock cameras are being reduced dramatically,” Abbott said. “They’re going to be required to be used responsibly if they’re used at all.”

The timing matters: the order came hours before the Texas Tribune published an investigation into how the state helped build the network in the first place. The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, whose board Abbott largely picked, has routed at least $30 million into grants that helped install 3,200 or more Flock cameras since 2023, with nearly 1,200 more going in through a three-year, $15.9 million Department of Public Safety contract. That grant money traces back to a 2023 law that tacked an extra dollar onto every Texas auto insurance policy, sold to lawmakers as a way to go after catalytic converter theft. Lawmakers told the Tribune there was no discussion of buying surveillance cameras with it before the bill passed unanimously.

Asked whether that grant money is now barred, Mahaleris answered: “All state agency funds.” The order is silent on money that has already gone out the door, and it does not name a start date or spell out which programs it covers. Dallas, which runs more than 670 cameras and put nearly $1.7 million in grant money toward a $5.7 million Flock contract last May, said Friday it had not heard from the governor’s office at all.

This all comes as the pushback against Flock has led to the rise of another vendor, Axon, better known for Tasers and body cameras. Axon CEO Rick Smith talked about the shift on the company’s latest earnings call, telling investors that “we’re seeing a significant number of agencies want to come over to Axon and convert from existing license plate readers to us, specifically because of the controls and privacy work that we’ve done around the space.”

He also said Axon is developing AI of its own to catch searches that look like abuse. Denver, Longmont, and departments in New York, Arizona, and Pennsylvania have already switched.