Lebanon mayor questions Flock software controls in letter to company
LEBANON, Ohio —
A mayor in Ohio is sending a letter to Flock for answers about the controls and safeguards on the city’s license plate reader cameras.
Lebanon Mayor Mark Messer shared a letter addressed to Flock Group Inc, the company that manufactures license plate reader cameras.
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Messer says the city of Lebanon has run 20 Flock cameras since March 2024.
In his post and letter he shares he believes the program has helped the Lebanon Police Department significantly, but says questions remain about the software and settings they can’t control.
“I want to be clear about something up front. The questions posed in my letter to Flock is not about our officers, it is about the software they have to rely on, and the settings we cannot control. Our department has lead the nation in implementing and maintaining the highest level of security and scrutiny when using the Flock system,” Messer said in his post.
Messer says the department has already taken steps within its control to regulate its use like state network and nationwide network license plate lookup being disabled, multi-factor authentication, queries requiring case numbers and periodic audits. Messer says no Lebanon officer has ever been subject of a misuse investigation.
In the letter, Messer says those safeguards are executed by Flock that they can’t verify or inspect, saying how would the city know if one of the controls failed.
In his letter, Messer outlines dozens of questions based on “hours of research and in person discussions.”
The questions include topics like whether Flock can allow city-controlled settings, whether the platform enforces the policy on safeguards that city council approved for the police department, evidence usage in a courtroom and what happens if something goes wrong.
Messer emphasized that he is not questioning the police department but rather the platform Flock operates and what the city can and cannot control.
Lebanon is the latest city to raise questions on the Flock platform and usage.
Earlier this month, Oxford City Council voted to end the program. Five cities in northern Kentucky have also ended their Flock camera programs.