Lebanon Temporarily Disables All 20 Flock Safety Cameras

Our Take

Credit where it's due: WCPO 9 caught something rare on camera — a city council actually hitting the brakes on Flock Safety instead of rubber-stamping the renewal. Lebanon didn't just table a vote, it had crews physically cover all 20 ALPR units while officials sort out data privacy and security concerns. That's a real, tangible rollback, not just a strongly worded memo.

This matters because the usual pattern is the opposite: a police department signs a Flock contract, nobody reads the data-sharing fine print, and the cameras hum along scanning every plate that passes until a reporter or a lawsuit forces a reckoning years later. Lebanon flipping the sequence — pausing first, investigating second — is the kind of accountability we want to see replicated everywhere these networks get rubber-stamped without public input.

Whether this stays a temporary timeout or turns into a permanent exit depends entirely on what residents do before that September 22nd decision. If you're in Lebanon or anywhere near a Flock deployment, check our camera map to see what's tracking you, and hit take-action for ways to push your own council toward the same kind of scrutiny.