Columbus Puts Flock Cameras Under the Microscope #Shorts #Columbus #FlockSafety

Our Take

Credit to Pique Media for surfacing this one: a city-ordered audit of Columbus's Flock network found more than 15,000 immigration-related plate searches buried in almost 20 million total queries since November 2023. City officials are quick to note that's under 1 percent — but "less than 1 percent" of 20 million is still a lot of people whose movements got pulled up, potentially for reasons that have nothing to do with the auto-theft or hit-and-run cases these systems are marketed around.

This is exactly the pattern we track: local police departments install ALPR networks promising narrow public-safety use, then the data ends up accessible for purposes voters never approved and often never find out about until an audit forces it into daylight. Columbus deserves credit for actually auditing and holding a public hearing on August 10 — most cities don't bother. But the real test isn't the hearing, it's whether council puts teeth into whatever comes out of it: hard caps on who can query the system and why, audit logs that are actually reviewed in real time, and retention windows measured in days, not months.

If you're in Columbus or anywhere else with Flock cameras, check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and use our take-action guide to push your own council for the same kind of scrutiny before the next audit becomes the next scandal.