Bob Moore, El Paso Matters President and CEO, covers top stories each week.
Scott Brocato:
Bob, let's start with this story: the city of El Paso gives Flock 90 days to remove 150 cameras as public scrutiny grows about the cameras.
Bob Moore:
So Flock is a law enforcement system that's being used across the country with quite a bit of controversy. And basically, these are license plate readers that are stationed throughout El Paso and throughout much of the country right now, and law enforcement has said that it offers them a lot of ability to respond more quickly to things like auto thefts. But there have been a lot of concerns raised by privacy advocates and others on the risk of these. And in other cities in Texas and in the country, there have been examples of law enforcement accessing these systems improperly for their own personal grudges to track an ex-girlfriend and things like that. And so as these issues have built up, a lot of public backlash is built.
And earlier this month, Governor Abbott of Texas issued an executive order banning any use of state funding for these flock systems, which is a real reversal for him. He's usually very pro-law enforcement. And so the city of El Paso was entirely reliant on grants from the state to fund its camera system, so it had to stop using them. But the cameras are still up. And so one of the questions was, can the city just go take them down? Their lawyers said this week at city council that no, the contract says that only Flock can remove them. And so the council decided to issue an order that required Flock to remove those cameras within 90 days. And they're also looking at perhaps covering them up if Flock doesn't remove them.
I think there's some hope in the police department that maybe grant money would come up again down the road that might allow access to this, but the city council doesn't seem to have much of an appetite for that right now. So those cameras aren't being used by El Paso police and we'll keep an eye on it to see if they're actually removed over the next three months.
Scott Brocato:
Moving on, El Paso County adds millions to the sheriff's budget as jail overtime concerns persist.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, this has been an issue since Oscar Ugarte became sheriff back in early 2025. The amount of overtime they're spending, especially at the jail, has ratcheted up rapidly, even though inmate population has gone down. And the county, which funds the jail, has expressed repeated concerns, including the county commissioners. The sheriff's department says they need the overtime to safely operate the jail. I don't think the commissioners have been satisfied with it, with the answers. But in Texas, one of the challenges is that people like the sheriff are elected officials on their own. And so they don't answer necessarily to the commissioners court, although commissioners do set the budget. So that's where you have to stand off.
And so this year the sheriff has overspent his budget by almost $5 million on jail operations, and so the county is adopting its new budget for next year. So they increased sheriff by about 5% for next year, but they did not approve his request to hire a bunch of new detention officers. They didn't authorize any increase in his overtime budget, but they did set aside about $9 million in a contingency fund for potential overtime costs as they try to get a handle on this. The commissioners have agreed to pay for $1,000,000 study to look at the sheriff's operations, but it's really unclear when that might take place. So I'm guessing this is an issue that you and I will be revisiting on a couple of more occasions in the coming months.
Scott Brocato:
Finally, El Paso ISD administrators are substituting as a cost-saving measure.
Bob Moore:
Yes, so El Paso ISD has 255 central office administrators. That means they're not assigned to a campus. And as a budget-saving move, and as also move to kind of keep students top of mind, the superintendent created a plan this year where all the central office administrators, including him, will work as substitutes in classrooms eight times a year in addition to their existing job responsibilities.
And so our reporter, Claudia Lorena Silva, followed some of these administrators around, including Brian Lusk, who's the superintendent in the early days of this effort. And it's kind of an eye-opening story. A lot of these administrators haven't been in a classroom in years, and they seem to appreciate the opportunity to get back in there and kind of get a better feel for what teachers are facing.
This is not gonna save a whole lot of money. The average substitute gets paid about $100 a day. So you're maybe talking about a quarter million dollars in savings over the coming year. But as we know, El Paso ISD and other schools have continuing financial challenges. So every little bit will help. And this is also part of a broader plan that the district has to save on substitute costs by reducing teacher absenteeism, replacing long-term subs with actually certified teachers, which saved a few jobs that were going to be reduced during the exigency crisis earlier this year.