Hutto City Council decided to discontinue the police department’s use of 10 Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras during a Sept. 18 meeting.

What happened: Hutto Police Chief Jeffrey Yarbrough said the city turned off and took down the cameras ahead of the vote. 

According to the city, the Hutto Police Department identified concerns that partner agencies accessing information from the system are not bound by HPD's own policies governing that data. Developments in artificial intelligence technology also raised questions, city staff said.

What they’re saying: Yarbrough said the department weighed whether it would be a dealbreaker to not have the cameras, and whether they provided a level of investigatory value to the point that the department could not function without them. However, he said that was not the case. 

“Flock is a valuable tool and we value the opportunity to use that tool,” Yarbrough told Community Impact. “We value the successes that we've had with that platform, but we also value the concerns that the public has and some of the concerns that we've seen as a department.”

Doll House Beauty Lounge is now open in Hutto, offering lash extensions, spray tanning, and medical aesthetics and wellness.

The details: The business opened Aug. 3 and held its grand opening on Sept. 17.

Doll House is a collective of three women-owned businesses under one roof.

Bailey Grazes and Amy Paton own Hutto Lash Co. and GloStudio, respectively. A third tenant, Leo Aesthetics, offers services such as Botox, filler, cosmetic injections, GLP-1 services and peptide therapy.

• 102 Taylor St., Hutto

Williamson County officials are seeking applications for a new Precinct 1 Constable, following Williamson County Precinct 1 Constable Mickey Chance's resignation, effective Sept. 30.

How it works: The Williamson County Commissioners Court will appoint a new constable to fill the position until the November 2028 election.

Those interested in the position should send their resume and qualifications to [email protected] by Sept. 30 for commissioners to review.

Why it matters: Constables are law enforcement officials elected to four year terms in each precinct. They execute court orders from county and state courts, which most often include arrest warrants, protective orders and evictions, according to county documents.

Precinct 1 covers parts of Round Rock and Austin in Williamson County.

Here are six trending Austin-area stories from Sept. 14-17.

1. Check out 22 Georgetown-area business updates

2. Cedar Park to build wave pool in $10 million Veterans Memorial Pool expansion

3. Final first days: Pflugerville ISD prepares for 4 school closures, admin cuts

4. Construction on RM 620 widening project may begin in early 2029

5. Round Rock readopts trails master plan identifying new corridors for connectivity

6. Airbnb launches national affordable housing fund with $6.4M Austin investment

Some Texas Republican leaders have vowed to get rid of the property taxes that homeowners pay to their local public school districts, and lawmakers are analyzing how much it would cost to do so.

The big picture: Texas school districts collect about $29 billion per year in maintenance and operations taxes, which cover schools' daily expenses.

Of that $29 billion in school tax revenue, the state comptroller's office estimates that about $8.6 billion is paid by homeowners, and the rest comes from commercial and industrial property taxes.

This means the state would need to spend at least $8.6 billion annually to zero out homeowners' school property tax bills, officials said.

Quote of note: "Broadly speaking, you have a question about how much you want to fund schools, and then separately, where does that money come from?" Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said during a Sept. 15 legislative hearing. "If you have a target of how much you want to spend, you need to make sure you have enough variable revenue sources to reach that."