Reynoldsburg says goodbye to Flock Safety cameras

Our Take

WSYX ABC 6 reports that Reynoldsburg has deactivated its Flock Safety cameras and is canceling its contract outright, citing privacy concerns and documented misuse. This is a big deal because it cuts against the industry's favorite talking point: that once a city signs up for Flock, the cameras are a permanent fixture of the landscape. Reynoldsburg just proved that's false. A city council can hear from its residents, look at how the system is actually being used, and decide the tradeoff isn't worth it.

'Misuse' is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and it should. Every Flock deployment comes with promises of audit logs and narrow use policies, but those promises only mean something if someone is actually checking them — and in city after city, when someone finally does look, they find searches that have nothing to do with the stated purpose: immigration status checks, personal disputes, out-of-scope lookups by agencies with no formal agreement. Reynoldsburg residents and officials apparently decided they didn't want to be the next cautionary tale.

Credit to WSYX ABC 6 for covering a local story that has national stakes — this is exactly the kind of accountability reporting that gives other city councils cover to ask the same hard questions. If you want to see whether ALPR cameras are already watching your commute, check our map, and if you'd rather your city follow Reynoldsburg's lead than expand its surveillance footprint, our take-action page has the tools to make that case to your own council.