Flock in Columbus
Everything on this page comes from public records, published audits, and local reporting — each item linked to its source. Where the record is incomplete, we say so rather than guessing.
What central Ohio has bought
Flock cameras under contract across 15 central Ohio police departments, totaling nearly $2 million.
WOSU, April 2026Additional regional cameras that Columbus law enforcement could access, beyond the city's own.
WOSU, June 2026The City of Columbus contract with Flock Safety, active since 2024.
WOSU, June 2026Days Flock says it retains scan data before deletion — including scans of drivers who were never suspected of anything.
WOSU, April 2026Columbus police reported operating 48 cameras as of June 2026, with 28 more permitted or being installed. An earlier records-based count put the division's contract at 38 cameras running from December 2024 through the end of 2026. The figures differ because the deployment is still growing — which is itself worth noting when an agency describes the program as a fixed, limited pilot.
The published counts are a floor. WOSU reported that several departments simply did not respond to records requests, so the real number of ALPRs in Franklin County is likely higher than 319. Our map independently shows cameras that volunteers have physically spotted — a different undercount, from the other direction.
What the search logs showed
This is the part that moved Columbus from a policy debate to a public hearing. After councilmembers requested an audit of how the city's Flock data was being queried, the review found that Columbus police network data had been searched for possible immigration-related reasons up to 15,577 times.
Searches of CPD's network identified as possibly immigration-related — an upper-bound figure from the audit.
WOSU, July 2026Of those searches, the number that originated directly from Columbus police officers. One officer is under investigation.
WOSU, July 2026Two details are worth holding onto. First, the overwhelming majority of those searches came from outside Columbus — which is precisely the sharing-network problem, not a rogue-officer problem. Second, the city's own deputy chief has acknowledged the limit of the technical fix: Flock offers filtering to block immigration agencies, but an agency can record its search purpose as something else — "wanted person," for example — and pass straight through the filter.
A councilmember noted that misrepresenting a search purpose that way would violate Flock's terms of service and possibly federal law. That is true, and it is also the point: the safeguard depends on the honesty of the person typing, discovered only by audit, after the fact.
Timeline
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2024
Columbus signs a $228,000 contract with Flock Safety. The Division of Police contract covers cameras running from December 2024 through the end of 2026.
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March 2026
Columbus City Council begins reevaluating its policy on Flock camera use.
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April 2026
WOSU publishes a records-based accounting: 319 cameras, 15 central Ohio departments, nearly $2 million. Several departments never responded to the requests.
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June 2026
Flock becomes the center of a council debate over federal immigration enforcement. Councilmembers press for an audit rather than the immediate ban Dayton adopted.
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July 2026
The audit lands: up to 15,577 possibly immigration-related searches. Mayor Andrew Ginther orders Columbus police to halt statewide sharing of Flock data. Council schedules a public hearing.
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August 10, 2026 — upcoming
Public hearing at City Hall. Council takes public comment and questions representatives from Flock directly. This is the moment residents have been asking for. How to take part →
It is not only city police
Flock's Ohio footprint extends well past municipal police departments. Reporting by Signal Ohio found state agencies deploying the cameras too, including the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction — which paid Flock $171,000 in 2025 and $213,500 in 2026 — along with the Bureau of Workers' Compensation and the State Fire Marshal.
Suburban departments, universities, business districts and homeowner associations buy the same cameras. That matters for strategy: a Columbus council vote governs Columbus cameras. The camera at the entrance to a private subdivision in a ring suburb answers to a different body entirely, often one that meets in a room with eleven people in it.
Other Ohio cities have moved
Columbus is not deciding this in isolation. Cleveland disabled ICE access to its Flock database in the fall of 2025 and, after initially moving to shut the cameras off, voted in July 2026 to extend its contract with an amendment restricting regional fusion center access. Dayton took the more direct route and banned the cameras. Springfield and Shaker Heights have taken up the same question.
The range of outcomes is the useful part. "Keep them but restrict sharing," "keep them with an audit requirement," and "remove them" are all live options that Ohio cities have actually chosen, which makes them all reasonable things for a Columbus resident to ask for.
Sources
We would rather you check us than trust us. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.
- "Central Ohio police departments have spent nearly $2 million on Flock license plate cameras" — WOSU Public Media, April 28, 2026. Camera counts, contract totals, retention, records-request gaps.
- "Flock surveillance cameras at the center of Columbus City Council ICE enforcement debate" — WOSU Public Media, June 2, 2026. Camera counts, contract value, filtering limitations.
- "Columbus City Councilmember Emmanuel Remy hesitant to cancel city's Flock camera contract" — WOSU Public Media, July 15, 2026. Audit findings, hearing date, mayoral directive.
- "Columbus City Council reevaluating policy around use of Flock cameras" — WOSU Public Media, March 16, 2026.
- "Columbus schedules a public hearing on Flock cameras" — Axios Columbus, July 16, 2026.
- "More Ohio agencies deploy Flock AI cameras, including workers comp and the fire marshal" — Signal Ohio. State agency deployments and spending.
- "Cleveland city council votes to continue Flock Safety camera contract" — Cleveland 19 News, July 15, 2026.
A note on what we did not put here. We have left out per-suburb camera counts and dollar figures we could not tie to a public record. If you file a records request and get an answer, send it to us — we will publish it with the document attached.
The hearing is August 10
Council will question Flock directly and take public comment. Rooms like this are usually decided by who bothered to show up.