The Texas Department of Public Safety spent nearly $4.5 million on four Chevrolet Tahoes equipped with Israeli surveillance technology capable of locating nearby cellphones, according to reports from Forbes and Let’s Address This.
The purchase totaled $4,487,500. Only about $600,000 of that amount covered the SUVs themselves, according to Let’s Address This. The remaining roughly $3.9 million went toward surveillance equipment, including cell-site simulators, antennas, backpacks and portable equipment manufactured by Israeli surveillance company Cognyte.
Forbes first reported the purchase July 13, describing it as the largest known Cognyte contract with a U.S. law enforcement agency.
At the center of the purchase is a system called FalcoNet.
FalcoNet is a cell-site simulator, a surveillance device that impersonates a legitimate cellular tower and causes nearby phones to connect to it. The technology allows law enforcement to identify and locate phones within its operating area, including devices belonging to people who are not targets of an investigation.
According to Forbes, the equipment purchased by DPS can be concealed inside the Tahoes, carried in a backpack or mounted on a helicopter.
The technology is similar to the StingRay cell-site simulators that have been used by federal and local law enforcement agencies for years.
Cognyte’s materials say FalcoNet can be deployed rapidly and operate across multiple generations of cellular networks. The technology can potentially process large numbers of devices in its vicinity rather than interacting exclusively with the phone investigators are attempting to locate.
That capability has made cell-site simulators a focus of privacy and Fourth Amendment concerns.
The U.S. Department of Justice adopted a policy in 2015 generally requiring its federal law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant supported by probable cause before using cell-site simulators, with limited exceptions.
That federal policy does not govern Texas DPS.
Texas does not have an equivalent statewide statutory warrant requirement specifically governing law enforcement use of cell-site simulators.
Texas lawmakers have previously attempted to impose restrictions. Then-state Rep. César Blanco introduced House Bill 352 in 2015, which sought to establish warrant requirements for certain location-tracking technology. The legislation did not become law.
The absence of a specific Texas statute governing the technology raises questions about what legal process DPS will require before activating the equipment, how information from phones belonging to bystanders will be handled and how long any information collected through the system will be retained.
The purchase itself does not establish that DPS has used the equipment unlawfully or that it has deployed it against people without appropriate legal authorization.
It does, however, give the state’s largest law enforcement agency a significant new surveillance capability.
Cognyte is based in Herzliya, Israel, and was spun off from surveillance company Verint Systems in 2021. Forbes reported that the company’s business in the United States has been expanding, with U.S. revenue growing from approximately $10 million in 2023 to $15 million in 2025.
Texas is not the first U.S. government customer for the Israeli company’s technology.
According to Forbes and Let’s Address This, Cognyte surveillance equipment has also been purchased by the New York State Police, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and authorities in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Texas purchase stands out for its size.
For $4.49 million, DPS acquired four ordinary-looking Chevrolet Tahoes and the equipment necessary to transform them into mobile surveillance platforms capable of detecting and locating cellphones around them.
The acquisition puts Texas squarely into a growing national debate over how police should be permitted to use technology that can collect information from electronic devices belonging not only to suspects, but also to people who simply happen to be nearby.
