Flock Camera Charges Dropped as Surveillance Backlash Grows

An Ohio grand jury declined to indict Cody Morelock, charged with felony vandalism over a destroyed Flock license plate reader camera in a Cincinnati suburb.

Police in Union Township said Morelock took apart the camera, its support pole and its solar panel on June 13, and put the damage at more than 1,000 dollars.

Investigators identified him using footage from nearby cameras along with records tied to a credit card and a customer rewards account, and he posted a 10,000 dollar bond after his arrest.

The Clermont County grand jury refused to return an indictment and the charges were dismissed.

The case lands in the middle of a national backlash against Flock, whose cameras log plate numbers and vehicle details in a central database that police in other cities and states can search.

Dozens of the cameras have been vandalized around the country, including all eight in Winona, Minnesota, which someone cut down and stole earlier in the month.

The Institute for Justice counted more than 100 cases of officers abusing the technology as of August 12, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation calls the company's new safeguards cosmetic and argues that searching plate reader data should require a warrant.

A grand jury watched footage of Cody Morelock dismantling a license plate reader outside Cincinnati and refused to indict, though police traced him through private surveillance, a credit card and a rewards account, Futurism reports. Clermont County prosecutors dropped the felonies without prejudice, so they can come back. Cities hedge: Cleveland cut its Flock contract to six months at 125,000 dollars and locked the regional fusion center out of its plate data, one of more than 1,700 readers across Cuyahoga County, Signal Cleveland notes. Two federal judges upheld the cameras this year, but both rulings are on appeal, and one invited the Supreme Court to decide whether a 1,700 camera countywide network amounts to a dragnet.