ATHENS, Ohio — The Athens County Sheriff’s Office and the Athens Police Department have utilized Flock surveillance cameras for the past two years, now amid concern from the public.
Over half of Athens City Council members joined the city auditor, police chief and a crowd of over 80 people at a forum regarding Flock surveillance Wednesday, June 10 at the Athens Community Center.
The forum, hosted by Strong Towns Athens and the Americans For Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, largely focused on the use and the upcoming auto-renewal of a $30,000 contract at the Athens County’s Sheriff’s Office auto with Flock Safety, a private surveillance company known for its signature automatic license plate reader technology. Automatic license plate readers, aka ALPRs, have been around for over two decades.
Flock software also creates a network for law enforcement to share data across the country, prompting privacy and surveillance concerns in communities nationwide.
The sheriff’s office and Athens Police Department have contracts with Flock, for over a dozen cameras around the city. The Ohio Department of Transportation also utilizes Flock cameras, as well as Lowe’s on East State Street. A records request sent June 10 to ODOT District 10 for where ALPRs have been installed in Athens County is still pending, as well as a request to the sheriff’s office for its camera locations.
The interactive map above shows automatic license plate reader cameras in Athens County. Source: DeFLock Maps, a crowdsourced ALPR surveillance map; data from DeFlock and OpenStreetMap contributors. The Independent has not independently verified all of this data, though has obtained a list of Athens Police Department Flock camera locations (see below).
Flock’s updated terms and conditions this year removed language that prohibited the sale of customer data by Flock. The terms were also updated to enable Flock easier access to data and to access it in perpetuity, even if an agency terminates its contract, according to the ACLU.
A records request by the Independent for right-of-way installation permits issued for ALPRs, the Athens County Engineer’s Office, Athens Township trustees and City of Athens Engineering and Public Works Department, turned over no information, as none of the organizations had such permits.
How Flock works
Jeff Kuhn, an educational technologist at Ohio University, gave an overview of ALPRs and Flock at the June 10 forum.
Kuhn said that for “the longest time” Flock cameras were being used to scan license plates.
“Car drives by, click, takes a picture, has a license plate, uses optimal image recognition to pull the numbers and letters off the license plate, and they would run those against what’s typically called a ‘hot list,’” Kuhn said.
A “hot list” is a list of license plates that are of interest to law enforcement, created by law enforcement agencies, he said.
“We see these things, they’ve happened for a long time, typical part of police work, right. In Athens, he said, “we’re seeing this blurred proliferation of Flock cameras here in town, about 16 of them. Nationally, there’s about 90,000.”
Kuhn said some of the risks of using Flock are that law enforcement do not understand what they’re signing up for when contracting with the company.
Flock’s surveillance software also utilizes artificial intelligence that Kuhn said research is showing that “people act on that information much more quickly than they should, because they see AI as being authoritative.”
Kuhn also mentioned how Flock can share information it gathers in communities outside of the communities without communities’ knowledge — or consent. With that information comes the risk of data leaks, too — of which Flock has a history.
“When it comes to data, I have a phone, I choose to have a phone, right? … I need to use a public road,” Kuhn said. ”We have to make these choices with our data, but with this one, we don’t get a choice.”
At the meeting, ACLU of Ohio Advocacy Strategist Natalie Johnson also spoke and presented on the sheriff’s office contract.
“We don’t expect our law enforcement to be tech experts,” Johnson said. “We do expect them to have our security in mind, though.”
Athens County Sheriff’s Office
The June 10 forum largely focused on the Athens County Sheriff’s Office’s auto-renewal of its Flock contract. No representative of the sheriff’s office attended the forum.
In a phone interview, Athens County Sheriff Rodney Smith confirmed that his office uses a ‘hot list.’
“The deputies, if they’re conducting an investigation, they have to enter the data that would target a car,” Smith said.
Smith referenced concerns of human trafficking and said his office has used Flock “to locate someone that was grooming a 12-year-old little girl.”
“It’s a good tool,” Smith said. “It’s really been a great tool for us throughout our sheriff coalition, our six counties in the state of Ohio, to help us reduce those numbers and actually locate people that are targeting; human trafficking and situations like that.”
Smith said the sheriff’s office has also located stolen vehicles from other states in Athens County. Flock’s software enables law enforcement from across the country to access local data and hot lists.
According to a records request to the sheriff’s office for Flock organization audits, documenting all searches of license plate reader data conducted by Athens County between May 20, 2025 and May 20, 2026, the sheriff’s office had generated three outcome reports from December 2024 through May 2025 — one regarding a stolen vehicle from Tennessee.
Smith said he doesn’t believe that Flock has been used to target immigrants, thoughU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accessed Flock data despite being technically prohibited.
Limiting ICE’s access to local Flock data is a rising topic for Ohio cities such as Springfield, Shaker Heights, Cleveland, and Columbus.
In July 2024, the Athens County Sheriff’s Office signed a $69,500 two-year contract, paid in two installments: $39,500 down, and $30,000 in 2025. That contract paid for five cameras each year, for a total of 10. That contract auto-renewed June 18.
The Independent asked Smith via email June 25 for a copy of the latest contract, as well as clarity as to whether or not the office purchased more cameras. He did not respond prior to publication.
The county paid for its 2024 Flock contract through a $42,500 grant it obtained from the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program ($3,000 of which was refunded).
The sheriff’s office ALPR policy states, “All stored ALPR data is maintained by FLOCK for 30 days and is then destroyed unless a specific file has been retained as part of an ongoing investigation.”
“If nothing happens that hasn’t been entered, that goes away in 30 days,” Smith told the Independent.
Athens Police Department
Athens Police Department Chief Nick Magruder, who attended the forum, told the Independent after the event that he came to “see what the community thought about everything, and what their concerns were.”
“And obviously, we have a year to go in our contract, and it opens my mind up to having more conversations when this time comes,” he said.
Magruder said the Athens Police Department has used Flock “quite a bit, and it’s been successful.” He said Flock has benefited the department in crime-solving “quality of life stuff,” such as traffic accidents, thefts, property damage, and stolen vehicles.
Magruder said that Athens Police Department officers cite Flock as evidence in their narrative incident reports, rather than generating “outcome” reports using Flock’s system in relation to hot lists.
In response to a records request the Athens Police Department said it does not keep records of Flock organization audits, documenting all searches of license plate reader data conducted between Jan. 3, 2024, and and May 26, 2026; nor does it collect Flock network audits, documenting all searches of license plate reader data conducted by entities outside of APD (third parties) between Jan. 3, 2024, and May 26, 2026.
The Athens Police Department first contracted with Flock for $13,100 in 2024 for an initial 12-month term for the installation of four cameras. In 2025, APD signed a $12,300 two-year contract with Flock to purchase two more cameras. That contract expires in February 2027.
Magruder shared in an email June 15 installation dates and locations of Athens Police Department’s six Flock cameras:
- Feb. 8, 2024: West Union Street near Habitat for Humanity ReStore, 309 W. Union St.
- March 19, 2024: Intersection of Columbus Road and U.S. 33 South.
- March 19, 2024: Intersection of Richland Avenue and U.S. 33 North.
- May 27, 2025: East State Street, near 547 E. State.
- June 23, 2025: East Stimson Avenue roundabout.
- Nov. 19, 2025: Interaction of East State Street and Della Drive.
Council members’ thoughts
In attendance at least during portions of the forum were council members Megan Almedia, 1st Ward, John Staser, 2nd Ward, and Michael Wood, 3rd Ward; and at-large members Ben Ziff and Jessica Thomas. Given that five council members were present, their presence technically constituted a quorum, per council statutes.
Paul Isherwood, At Large, who chairs the city’s Safety Services Committee, told the Independent after the event that he attended the forum to listen and learn about the topic.
“We have been looking at and considering for some time now some sort of ordinance regarding surveillance technology,” Isherwood said. “We’ve been talking to other people in the community who are cyber security experts … one of the things we realize is that if we’re going to create some sort of structure, we need to learn a lot more so we can put something in place that is effective and meaningful.”
Isherwood said discussions around Flock arose after the proposal for a grant-funded purchase of drones for the Athens Police Department failed after the public voiced opposition, citing civil liberty and cost concerns.
Isherwood said that the city administration values the usage of ALPR technologies, though is also aware of the public concern they generate.
“We want to start this conversation now, rather than eight days before the contract [renews],” Isherwood said.
He encouraged anyone who has concerns or questions, knowledge or information about the topic to contact their council representatives.
Jessica Thomas, At Large, told the Independent she found the forum informative.
“I really appreciate all the experts that came and the information they provided, and how many people showed up is amazing,” she said.
