After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet, Phone Ban
Source: Hacker News
Background
After months of discussion and outrage from residents, the city council of the tiny town of Bandera, Texas voted 3‑2 to immediately end its contract with the surveillance company Flock【video of vote】.
Bandera had received a state grant to install eight Flock Safety AI license‑plate‑reader cameras. The technology proved highly controversial; many residents repeatedly attended council meetings to voice opposition to government surveillance. The camera poles were repeatedly destroyed by vandals in protest, forcing the town to replace them at its own expense. Last week, the town formally decided to abandon its contract with Flock entirely【Bandera Bulletin article】.
Proposed Ban
In the aftermath of the vote, Councilmember Jeff Flowers, a staunch Flock supporter, announced that he would introduce measures to ban cell phones, the internet, cameras, and nearly all technology in the town of roughly 900 people. He framed the proposal as a response to residents’ privacy concerns, calling those who opposed surveillance “hypocrites.”
Flowers said he would present a series of new regulations at an upcoming city council meeting, dubbing them the “Bandera Declaration of Digital Independence.” In a letter posted by the local newspaper, the Bandera Bulletin【article link】, Flowers wrote:
“For months, I have listened to the outcry regarding License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology. I have seen the eyerolls, and I’ve even been met with ‘Nazi rhetoric,’ the dangerous claim that believing in accountability and community safety is somehow equivalent to totalitarianism. Comparing a neighbor’s desire for a safe street to a dark chapter of history is a classic case of comparing apples to oranges; it is a distraction used to avoid the reality of the threats our town faces today.”
He outlined three specific bans he intends to propose:
- A total ban on all cellular and GPS‑capable devices for any operation within city limits, urging residents to “leave our smartphones at the city line.”
- A total ban on outward‑facing cameras.
- A total termination of all internet services and electronic record‑keeping, reverting to “paper ledgers and cash only” as in 1880.