FLOCK SAFETY

 

As of August 18, 2026, several Ohio restrictions and suspensions—but no fully effective municipal prohibition yet. Marion City Council passed the strongest ban, but it is awaiting the mayor’s decision.

Most useful ALPR and surveillance-safety websites

Research, maps and documented misuse

• EFF Atlas of Surveillance — searchable national map covering ALPRs, facial recognition, drones, gunshot detection, camera networks, fusion centers and other police technologies.
• EFF Street-Level Surveillance: ALPRs — detailed explanation of how ALPRs work, the information they reveal and the risks to protesters, unions, clinics, places of worship and political activity.
• DeFlock — open-source national map of reported ALPR camera locations, including Ohio.
• Have I Been Flocked? — searchable Flock audit logs obtained through public-records requests, plus reports on immigration, protest-related and other questionable searches. Its records are extensive but incomplete.
• Institute for Justice ALPR Abuse Database — documented cases involving stalking, personal searches, wrongful stops and other misuse.
• Finding Flock Contract-Cancellation Tracker — tracks communities that terminated, suspended or declined to renew Flock contracts.

Rules, model policies and safeguards

• ACLU Community Control Over Police Surveillance — model local approach requiring public notice, a surveillance-impact report, public hearings and legislative approval before acquiring or changing surveillance technology.
• ACLU Surveillance Regulation Toolkit for Lawmakers — one of the most useful ordinance-drafting guides for ALPRs, cameras, drones, facial recognition and related systems.
• Brennan Center: ALPR Legal Status and Policy Recommendations — legal analysis and recommendations addressing retention, searches, sharing, warrants and oversight.
• IACP ALPR Resource Center and IACP model-policy page — operational policies, training and administrative guidance for police departments. These materials generally favor controlled police use, so they should be compared with the ACLU and EFF recommendations.
• National Conference of State Legislatures: ALPR statutes — comparison of state laws covering retention, authorized purposes, audits, sharing and warrants.
• Policing Project: Model statutes and legislative resources — broader material on facial recognition, drones and other policing technologies.
• NIST Privacy Framework — vendor-neutral system for conducting privacy-risk assessments and establishing governance, access controls, data minimization and incident response.

For physical roadside safety—camera poles creating collision hazards—use the Federal Highway Administration’s clear-zone guidance and Ohio DOT’s Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware. Roadside structures generally should be outside the clear zone, breakaway, or appropriately shielded.

Verified Ohio municipal actions

Municipality	Verified action and present status
Marion	City Council voted 5–4 on August 10 to pass Ordinance 2026-073, prohibiting Flock and similar systems. The official agenda describes the ban; however, it is awaiting Mayor Bill Collins’s decision and is not yet a fully effective law. Official Marion agenda and vote/status report.
Dayton	Dayton already has a broad surveillance-oversight ordinance, R.C.G.O. §§34.09–34.15, requiring notice, impact reports, public hearings, approval and annual reporting. In May 2026, Dayton indefinitely suspended its fixed Flock system after thousands of immigration-related searches violated city policy. Dayton surveillance policy, official suspension announcement, and current ALPR status page. This is a suspension—not yet a permanent statutory ban.
Cleveland	Council passed amended Ordinance 683-2026 on July 15. It continued Flock for six months but prohibited outside access without a warrant, excluded the Northeast Ohio Regional Fusion Center, required a transparency portal and quarterly reports, and restricted vendor sharing. Official legislation and final attachments and summary of enacted safeguards. This is restrictive legislation, not a ban.
Shaker Heights	The city amended its Flock contract and police policies: warrant-only disclosure by Flock; no access for federal agencies, out-of-state agencies or agencies with ICE 287(g) agreements; daily search reviews; access to audit logs; and termination/refund rights for violations. Official Shaker Heights restrictions. These were contractual and administrative actions—not a council-enacted ban.
Columbus	Police disabled nationwide sharing in June; the mayor subsequently ordered statewide sharing disabled after an audit found more than 15,000 potentially immigration-related outside searches. Council held a public hearing, but had not passed an anti-Flock ordinance as of August 18. Detailed WOSU status report.

Proposed but not yet passed

• Ironton: proposed prohibition received its first reading July 23; subsequent readings were still required. WSAZ report.
• Vermilion: Ordinance 2026-46 would broadly prohibit government acquisition, use, access and data-sharing involving ALPR systems, but the matter was not finally enacted at the August 17 meeting. Proposed ordinance text and meeting report.

The strongest enforceable ordinance should address all ALPR vendors and comparable technology, not merely Flock Safety; otherwise a municipality could replace Flock with Axon, Motorola or another provider without changing the underlying surveillance system.

AI-derived https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6a8461c0c2148191b33a0c8ddd142677