{"id":207664,"date":"2026-07-08T20:43:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=207664"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:43:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:43:40","slug":"flock-cameras-under-the-microscope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/07\/08\/flock-cameras-under-the-microscope\/","title":{"rendered":"Flock cameras under the microscope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Morgan Trau\/<\/strong>Ohio Capital Journal<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision restricting law enforcement\u2019s ability to use sprawling cell phone location data is bringing to light questions about the legitimacy of Flock Safety cameras used by police in Ohio and elsewhere. Several such cameras are in use in the city of Van Wert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police use \u201cgeofence warrants\u201d to get location data of suspects\u2019 electronic devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just hope that it is not a tool that is removed from our tool belt,\u201d Ohio Fraternal Order of Police President Jay McDonald said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These can help solve crimes when police run out of options, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new U.S. Supreme Court decision is shining a spotlight on police technology.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Law enforcement officers say Flock cameras are helpful. Detractors say otherwise. Van Wert independent photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to make apprehensions in those (cases) as quickly as possible to prevent other violent crimes from occurring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But these search every device in an area, starting from casting a wide net to more in-depth data, Case Western Reserve University criminal law professor Mike Benza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLaw enforcement will go to Google with this administrative warrant, saying, \u2018Give us all of the IP addresses of any connected device in this area around this time when a crime or some other instance of interest has occurred,’\u201d Benza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, police are able to expand the warrant and look deeper into specific accounts and addresses to get identity information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court is making it harder or even impossible to get them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The justices ruled that these warrants could constitute an unreasonable search and seizure, because oftentimes citizens\u2019 data is scooped up and investigated even if they have no connection to the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe my cell number being found in a particular location is particularly troublesome to me if I haven\u2019t committed any crimes,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just because someone else committed a crime, it doesn\u2019t mean that there is no longer a right to privacy, Benza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201c(Preventing a surveillance state) is exactly the concern that the court is addressing: Can technology basically eliminate the Fourth Amendment protection against an unreasonable search and seizure?\u201d Benza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police would still be able to get this data, as long as they can prove it in a probable cause warrant, not an administrative one. The latter have easier standards to obtain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this ruling worries law enforcement for another reason: Flock camera surveillance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlock cameras are extremely important,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cI certainly hope that this does not have an impact on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cameras, typically used as license plate readers, have popped up all over the state and country. They are facing increasing pushback, especially online and at city council meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flock No was formed late last year when the City of Cleveland wanted to push through the council an emergency proposal to expand Flock\u2019s footprint beyond license plate readers without giving other companies a chance to bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not comfortable knowing that my movements over the last month can be reconstructed in very great detail at any given time,\u201d Flock No\u2019s Bryn Adams said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benza explains that Flock cameras themselves are likely not violating privacy laws if they are just used for plate reading. They could, though, depending on how much data the company is collecting and how agencies are using it, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shaker Heights Police Department changed its policy regarding Flock license plate readers after data revealed that numerous outside agencies were using the system for immigration-related searches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recently obtained public records chronicling all Shaker\u2019s license plate reader data requests from Dec. 20, 2025, through the end of April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data sets show that Shaker Heights data was accessed more than 700,000 times, but Shaker Police accessed it only 1,016 times. The majority, 693,573 searches, were done by other law enforcement agencies in Ohio and across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reason was listed for each search. Immigration was listed 282 times. I.C.E. was mentioned 32 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaker Heights said the city now prohibits searches for \u201cimmigration,\u201d and any outside agency accessing Shaker Heights\u2019 cameras must abide by the new rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s used to track you, it now starts to look more like the geofence and the location data,\u201d Benza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 17, the Cleveland City Council Safety Committee voted 3-1 against renewing the Flock Safety contract for the city\u2019s license plate readers. However, they are expected to have another meeting to discuss in mid-July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Flock camera debate could make its way to the justices\u2019 desks in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, Ohioans are taking Flock into their own hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police in Parma are trying to find out who took down their Flock cameras. Two people, who covered their faces, sawed the surveillance cameras down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Trau\/Ohio Capital Journal The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision restricting law enforcement\u2019s ability to use sprawling cell phone location data is bringing to light questions about the legitimacy of Flock Safety cameras used by police in Ohio and elsewhere. Several such cameras are in use in the city of Van Wert. Police use \u201cgeofence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-16 04:01:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207664"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207698,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207664\/revisions\/207698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}