Who Is Searching the Cameras? Ramsey's Office Just Showed Why SBISD's Flock Records Matter

Do you want a non-police officer able to search whoever they want to?

That is the question after today's Houston Chronicle story.

What happened in Precinct 3

A civilian on Commissioner Tom Ramsey's Precinct 3 staff ran 19 Flock license-plate searches in August and September 2025. Ramsey's policy adviser confirmed the records are accurate. Every search was run by the same employee, the precinct's emergency response coordinator, who served as Ramsey's "law enforcement liaison."

He does not appear in Texas' public database of licensed law enforcement officers. The Chronicle reports some of his searches queried more than 13,000 networks.

One batch of searches hunted a car stolen from a relative of a Ramsey staffer. Another involved a burglary at a Ramsey community center. The agencies working those cases told the Chronicle their records don't show, or they don't recall, asking his office to search.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office's own Flock FAQ says: "Only peace officers and public safety personnel have access to the Harris County data." Letting a civilian run these searches is against county policy. It happened anyway. And the public didn't know until someone pulled the logs.

Ramsey's office now says Precinct 3 staff no longer have Flock access. Good. But the public only learned about it because the logs came out.

What I'm asking Spring Branch ISD for

Spring Branch ISD runs its own Flock cameras through its police department. I've asked the district for:

• The audit logs showing who searched and why
• The list of users and roles with access
• Which outside agencies' cameras SBISD can search: HPD, Harris County, DPS, statewide
• What SBISD paid, and whether it bought through the state DIR contract

I did not ask for a dump of every plate captured. I did not ask for street-level camera locations. I asked who has the keys and how they use them.

SBISD's lawyers asked the Texas Attorney General to let the district withhold these records. Much of their argument was blacked out on the copy sent to me.

I filed my objections with the AG on September 23. I'm waiting on a ruling.

This isn't the first time. In 2024 the Attorney General twice ordered SBISD to release Flock records it tried to hold back (OR2024-006545 and OR2024-024983).

What Hedwig Village showed me

Hedwig Village PD answered my records request. Asked for any agreement authorizing SBISD's access, Hedwig Village Police Chief Justin Wood wrote in his Sept. 24, 2026 public information response: "No agreement or MOU exists. HVPD receives requests for network share through Flock by other Flock users. Each request is reviewed by the Chief and approved or denied based on his discretion. The first request for network share from SBISD PD for HVPD cameras is logged as 11/9/2023." One more fact the public should know: Hedwig Village's city administrator, Wendy Baimbridge, a former HPD assistant chief, is married to SBISD Police Chief Larry Baimbridge. On the search logs, he wrote: "(Flock Audit dates only allow less than 31 days search)" So that's all I can show you. In that window, on a single day last month, SBISD ran 11 searches and plate lookups against Hedwig's cameras, logged as robbery and hit-and-run investigations.

Those searches may be fine. That's not the point. The point is that the public can see them in Hedwig's records, and can't see them in SBISD's.

What the published Flock audits show

Flock agencies can publish audit logs of who searched their cameras. HaveIBeenFlocked.com collects those published audits and lets anyone search them by agency. These counts come from audit logs that other agencies have published, so they reflect SBISD activity those agencies recorded, not SBISD's own complete records.

Spring Branch ISD PD shows up 4,680 times between Dec. 6, 2023 and Aug. 4, 2026, counting both searches and plate lookups. 204 of those entries reached more than 5,000 Flock networks. The reasons logged include 98 left blank, 32 that say only "test," and 60 logged as "city planning/traffic analysis." Others say "inventory," "information," "daytime search for best result," or just ".".

Two SBISD entries are logged on Jan. 1, 2025, at 8:58:01 AM and 8:58:10 AM CT. Operator, as HaveIBeenFlocked displays it: "L. Bai." Reason: "Investigation." Networks: 5,292 each.

Ramsey's Precinct 3 office shows up 188 times between Aug. 20 and Sep. 4, 2025. None of the 188 entries has a case number. 145 of them came on Aug. 27 alone, 137 of those plate lookups. The Chronicle reported 19 searches. The published audits list each search and each plate lookup as its own entry, along with searches labeled "test," so those are extra on top of the searches.

Hedwig Village PD shows up 508 times in the same published audits.

Why it matters

I'm not against police solving crimes. I'm against searches nobody can see.

Ramsey's office is what happens when access outruns oversight. If a school district can search a whole city's cameras, parents and taxpayers deserve to see the log.

Sunlight, not spin. Documented facts — not anonymous garbage.

Sources

• Houston Chronicle: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/harris-county-civilian-flock-use-22468755.php
• Harris County Sheriff's Office Flock FAQ: https://www.houstonpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Flock-FAQ.docx.pdf
• Hedwig Village PD public information response, Sept. 24, 2026 (on file)
• Requestor comments to the Texas AG, SNLL 26-668 and 26-672, Sept. 23, 2026 (on file)
• Hedwig Village staff page: hedwigtx.gov/staff
• 2019 HPD exchange-program bio ("Wendy is married to an HPD Commander – Larry Baimbridge"): PDF
• KPRC, Aug. 12, 2026 ("Spring Branch ISD Police Chief Larry Baimbridge"): click2houston.com