The Columbus Division of Police has disabled the nationwide network function on its Flock Safety cameras. The automated license plate reader cameras have drawn concern and criticism from activists and community members, who say the cameras feel like a violation of privacy and worry the cameras may be accessed by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Dayton recently suspended the use of its Flock cameras after it was found that a former commander did not implement mandated restrictions, allowing the cameras to be used for immigration-related searches. Columbus City Council members expressed their concerns about Flock cameras in a council meeting earlier this month.
Columbus police spokesperson Nicole Jaros said in a statement to WOSU, “this decision was made by Division leadership as an additional step to lessen the risk that our data could be used for purposes inconsistent with Division goals.”
Jaros confirmed the agency will continue to share data with vetted out-of-state agencies, specifically excluding agencies with a 287(g) agreement with ICE. In the June 1 council meeting, CPD Deputy Chief Tim Myers said CPD has requested that Flock create a way to exclude agencies with 287(g) agreements from searching its cameras.
Currently, Flock’s search limitations apply to the manually input reason an officer gives in a search query. Critics of Flock argue this is an easily bypassed system, as the "reason" field can be filled with anything. Agencies can also manually vet agencies they wish to share access with, but with nearly 900 law enforcement agencies in Ohio alone, this can be time consuming.
Jaros also confirmed CPD is still using the statewide network-sharing feature. This feature does not individually list agencies that are participating in the sharing feature. There are currently four Ohio agencies: Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Portage County Sheriff’s Office and Warren County Sheriff’s Office, that have both a contract with Flock and a 287(g) agreement with ICE.
Jaros said that the division does not know if those agencies are part of the sharing feature. The four sheriff’s offices have not responded to records requests.
CPD is also currently working on developing policy around Flock cameras. Myers said at the council meeting that he had hoped to publish the policy by the end of June, however he believes the policy will not be ready by the end of the month.
“As soon as that is ready, as soon as we have done that deliberation, we will publish it,” Myers said. “I just think it's important that we actually take a minute internally to deliberate on the right balance on a couple of different things. If we rush through that and we don't have good, defensible policy, we'll just be buying a scandal on an installment plan.”
