On the agenda: Urbana 09-29-2026 Council Work Session Minutes — Flock Camera (Sep 29)

¥] APPROVED

URBANA CITY COUNCIL
WORK SESSION MINUTES
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2026

President Pro Tempore Bean called the City of Urbana Work Session to order at 6:00 pm.
President Paul absent.

City Staff attending: Police Chief Josh Jacobs, Police Lieutenant Jason Kizer, Director of
Administration Spencer Mitchell, Director of Finance Matt Wellbaum, Fire Chief Dean Ortlieb

All Council members present
Flock Camera Presentation

Chief Jacobs stated tonight was about education and explaining “who what when where why.” He
stated Flock was an Automatic License Plate Reader, with eight total cameras at the exit points at
town. Flock cameras essentially serve as a force multiplier, as UPD can’t have officers at every
area of town. He indicated that they are used to assist in solving all types of crimes.

Chief Jacobs stated Urbana first had ALPRs in the early 2000s, as they were connected to the back
of cruisers for every vehicle that passed. He added that the first contract with Flock was in
February of 2024, with six cameras active by May 2024, and two more added in 2025.

Chief Jacobs went into detail about Federal Court opinions that stated no personal has a general
expectation of privacy while driving on public streets.

He indicated Flock cameras take a point-in-time picture of a vehicle traveling on public road.
These pictures capture the make, model, and license plate. He informed Council these photos only
support criminal investigations. He added that Flock keeps a permanent record of every search by
UPD.

Chief Jacobs stated that Flock doesn’t use facial recognition and doesn’t allow for a search of
people, pets, or clothing. These photos also do not connect to BMV systems and do not track a
vehicle continuously.

In filling out the Flock search request, Chief Jacobs stated officers have to fill in offense type, case
type, reason. He explained that officers can add license plate, plate state, and vehicle description,
if known. He added that there is not any connection to private companies, only law enforcement
agencies, with private companies that use Flock being housed on a different cloud than the
government cloud.

Chief Jacobs stated that officers can have to change descriptions to find what they’re looking for
some time. He explained that it took eighteen different searches to find the police cruiser for this
city demonstration. He showed that the pictures only focused on the back of the car on the license
plate.

Chief Jacobs explained that audits are completed randomly completed by an UPD administrator
and on an individual basis if misuse of software is suspected.

Chief Jacobs explained that Flock has informed agreed that the information is UPD’s data, and it
cannot be sold or given out without UPD approval. He also stated that all data is encrypted in
transit and at rest and undergoes strict compliances to make sure the data is protected.

Chief Jacobs explained the misinformation regarding UPD having 29 users when only 19 officers
are on the force. The Website “Have I Been Flocked?” had names of unknown users while the
actual Flock user log showed only 19 active users. Chief Jacobs was able to cross reference to
show that all searches with placeholder names were actually UPD officers that the website gave
placeholder names to since they couldn’t verify the information.

Chief Jacobs also stated that Urbana has conducted 10,264 searches from May 2024 to August
2026. He reminded everyone that each slight change to a car description is a different search. He
stated of the 191 Flock searches in July 2026, they were only for 32 criminal cases.

The Ohio Attorney General released a statement in support for Flock cameras, and stated that the
misuse of the system needs to be criminalized, which Chief Jacobs agrees.

In regards to the success of Flock within Urbana, Chief Jacobs stated Flock has helped solved three
felonious assaults, helped recover multiple stolen vehicles, helped with an arson from a drug deal
gone wrong, multiple hit/skip crashes, and also with passing of school bus complaints, among
other things.

Chief Jacobs then participated in a brief question and answer session with Citizens. Council did
not have any comments/questions.

WORK SESSION COMPLETED AT 7:35 p.m.

NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING
October 6, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.

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coun Council President