HOW TO ADOPT AND ADVANCE THIS RESOLUTION

Instructions for County Chairmen and Precinct Chairs

1. THE DESIGN CHOICE YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND BEFORE YOU FILE IT

You asked for a resolution that opposes surveillance and pushes toward removing these systems. It does — but notice how it gets there.

The resolution does not say “ban the cameras.” It says: no mass vehicle surveillance network may operate in Texas without the express authorization of the Legislature, a warrant to query it, a thirty-day purge, and a public vote to acquire it — and every device not meeting those conditions comes down.

That is functionally the same outcome. It is politically a very different vote.

A resolution that says “ban the cameras” invites a sheriff to stand up and describe a recovered child, and the room goes quiet. A resolution that says “no one voted for this and no Texan should be tracked without a warrant” cannot be answered that way. A Republican who votes against consent of the governed and a warrant requirement has to explain that vote to primary voters. That is the whole strategy. Do not let a well-meaning member amend Section 2 or Section 3 into something softer — those two sections are the load-bearing walls.

Section 11 is the removal provision. It is stated as a sunset conditioned on authorization, not as a ban. Leave it that way. It is the same result and it survives contact with a hostile room.

2. GET IT ADOPTED IN YOUR COUNTY

Where it passes: a County Executive Committee meeting, or a County Convention in a convention year. Precinct conventions are the best starting point in convention years — the more precincts that send it up, the harder it is to bury.

Before the meeting:
- Circulate the one-page talking points (Document 03) to precinct chairs at least a week out.
- Identify your likely opposition early. It is usually one of two people: someone close to the sheriff’s office, or someone who believes any limit on law enforcement is a betrayal of it. Talk to them before the meeting, not during it.
- Fill in every [COUNTY] and [NAME] field. A template circulated with brackets still in it looks unserious and gets tabled.

The single most effective thing you can do: ask your sheriff, in advance, whether he would object to a warrant requirement and a thirty-day purge. Many will say no, they would not object. If your sheriff is neutral or supportive, say so when you present it. If he opposes it, you want to know that before the floor, not from the floor.

Handling the “this ties law enforcement’s hands” objection: the resolution preserves AMBER and Silver Alerts and imminent-threat exceptions in Section 3. Point at it. The objection is almost always raised by someone who has not read past the title.

3. MOVE IT UP — THE THREE PATHS

There are three separate routes and you should use all of them. They operate on different clocks.

Path A — SREC Resolution (fastest)

The State Republican Executive Committee adopts standalone resolutions at its quarterly meetings. This is the live vehicle between conventions and the quickest way to get a statewide Party position on record.

What to do: send the adopted resolution to the SREC members for your Senatorial District, with the transmittal letter (Document 02). Ask them by name to sponsor it at the next quarterly meeting. SREC members respond to county chairmen who ask directly and specifically. They ignore mass emails.

Verify the next SREC meeting date and any submission deadline with RPT staff before you send. Deadlines move.

Path B — Legislative Priorities (highest value, slowest)

Under RPT Rule No. 34(c), Legislative Priorities are adopted by delegates at the State Convention. The process begins with the Legislative Priorities Committee at the County and Senatorial District Conventions, which recommends to the State Convention’s Temporary Committee, which reports to the Permanent Committee, which recommends to the delegates.

This is the prize. Rule 34(c) obligates the SREC to expend reasonable Party resources promoting passage of legislation supporting an adopted Priority. A Legislative Priority is not a press release — it is a budget commitment.

What to do: get this in front of your County Convention’s Legislative Priorities Committee, and make sure someone from your county serves on the SD-level committee. Priorities are won in committee by people who showed up, not on the convention floor.

Note on timing: the biennium’s Priorities are set at the State Convention. Confirm the current cycle with RPT — if the window for this biennium has closed, Path A carries the load until the next convention.

Path C — Direct legislative pressure (immediate)

Sections 14 and 15 do this. Send Document 04 to every Republican legislator representing your county and publish the results. This works regardless of what the SREC or the convention does, and it works fastest.

4. THE ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM — USE IT CORRECTLY

Section 16 references the Party’s accountability procedures. Read this next part carefully.

Under RPT Rule No. 44, a County Executive Committee may censure a Republican officeholder for actions in opposition to the Party’s Principles or Legislative Priorities. It requires a two-thirds vote of those present and voting and a majority of all constituent precinct chairs. If forwarded, the SREC may concur by three-fifths and impose penalties.

Section 16 is notice, not a censure, and it should stay that way for now. Here is why that matters:

• Rule 44 requires three or more qualifying actions. A legislator who has not yet had a chance to vote on ALPR legislation has taken zero.
• Censure is the Party’s most serious internal sanction. Deployed prematurely, it is discounted; deployed against a member with a genuinely defensible record, it damages the county party that filed it.
• A censure filed too early converts your strongest argument into a personality dispute. Right now the argument is that nobody voted for this. Keep it there.

The correct sequence: adopt the resolution → demand recorded positions → publish the responses and the non-responses → let the 90th Legislature happen → then evaluate the record. If a member votes to expand mass surveillance or repeatedly kills reform, you will have a real record and Rule 44 will be available on real facts.

Publication under Section 15 is the mechanism that actually works, and it costs you nothing. Most legislators would far rather answer a survey than explain to primary voters why they refused to.

5. WHAT TO CUSTOMIZE, AND WHAT NOT TO

Customize freely:
- All [COUNTY] and [NAME] fields.
- Add a WHEREAS clause naming your own county’s situation — the date your commissioners court or city council approved a contract, the dollar amount, whether it was competitively bid, whether the public was heard. A local fact is worth three general ones. If you have documented a specific failure, say so plainly and attach the document.
- Trim WHEREAS clauses if your committee wants it shorter. Cut from the middle, not from the top or bottom.

Do not weaken:
- Section 2 (legislative authorization) — this is the “no one voted for this” argument in operative form.
- Section 3 (warrant requirement) — this is the Fourth Amendment argument in operative form.
- Section 11 (sunset) — this is the removal provision.
- Sections 14 and 15 (recorded positions and publication) — without these it is a press release.

Verify before you file:
- Every factual assertion in the WHEREAS clauses is drawn from public reporting current as of August 2026. Facts move. Before you file, confirm the vendor licensure timeline, the current count of participating agencies, and the status of federal legislation. A resolution with one stale fact in it will be attacked on that fact and nothing else.
- Confirm current RPT deadlines and meeting dates with state Party staff.

6. AN HONEST WORD ABOUT WHAT THIS WILL AND WILL NOT DO

It will: put your county on record, create a document that legislators must answer, build the county-by-county record that makes a Legislative Priority possible, and give primary voters something concrete to ask about.

It will not: by itself remove a single camera. Party resolutions are not law. The cameras come down when the Legislature acts or when local governing bodies decline to renew contracts.

Which points to the thing most county parties overlook. These are subscription contracts with renewal dates. A county commissioners court or city council can decline to renew. That decision is made locally, by five people, at a meeting you can attend.

So do both. Send this resolution up the Party ladder — and find out when your county’s ALPR contract comes up for renewal, put it on your calendar, and fill the room that day. The resolution is the argument. The renewal vote is the opportunity.

7. DOCUMENTS IN THIS PACKET

A word on Document 06. The resolution states a position. Document 06 is how you find out whether your own county has a problem — and it is one page, costs nothing, and is drawn from a county party that sent eleven separate requests before learning which questions mattered. Send it the same week you adopt the resolution. A chairman who can stand up and say “our sheriff’s own policy requires audit logs and the county says none exist” will carry a room that a chairman quoting the Fourth Amendment will not.

Prepared as drafting support. Verify all factual assertions and all RPT procedural deadlines before filing.