Ordinance 2026-27 · Passed 5–0
We hold this truth to be self-evident — and Monroe just acted on it: a free people are not tracked by default.
On Sept 22, 2026, Monroe City Council voted 5–0 to end the city's Flock Safety contract.
Courts have long held that privacy doesn't end at your front door — you're still entitled to it in public. This isn't a photograph. It's the government building a permanent, searchable profile of everywhere you go.
- 1.Monroe pays Flock ~$70,000/year for 23 cameras that photograph every car, every road — no warrant, no suspicion.
- 2.Flock just admitted, in writing, it keeps a separate 5-year copy of the data even when the contract says 30 days.
- 3.On Sept 22, council voted unanimously, 5–0, to pass Ordinance 2026-27, ending the contract and removing the cameras.
What happens next
Cameras come down · contract ends
City Council Chambers
233 South Main Street, Monroe, OH 45050
Thank you to everyone who showed up, signed, called, and spoke. This is what it looks like when a town decides.
The right this violates
In plain terms: police are supposed to need a reason before they search you. Flock searches everyone, all the time, with no reason at all.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause… and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
A Flock camera doesn't get a warrant. It doesn't name a suspect. It just runs on every car, all the time, and figures out later if any of it mattered.
That's backwards from what the Constitution requires. A search is supposed to start with a reason and a named target — then the search happens. Flock searches first and asks questions never. No warrant, no suspicion, no named person: that's not a gray area, that's the definition of what this amendment bans.
Resolution 28-2024
Monroe signed this without a public vote.
On April 23, 2024, City Council authorized the city manager to sign a contract with Flock Group Inc. for 23 automatic license plate reading cameras. Most residents found out much later. The cameras photograph and log every vehicle that passes — plate, state, make, color, even bumper stickers — whether or not anyone is suspected of anything.
It's also a lease, not a purchase: $3,000 per camera, per year, forever. End the contract and every camera goes back to Flock — Monroe owns none of it, ever.
- 23 cameras, logging every vehicle, no warrant or suspicion required
- $152,150 committed so far under Res. 28-2024 and 38-2024
- $3,000 per camera, per year, forever — and the city owns none of it
Flock's own words, under oath
Their patent says the opposite of what their rep told this council.
In 2024, Flock's rep told Monroe council: "This system is not facial recognition." Flock's own U.S. patent — filed under oath, four years earlier — describes the exact opposite: searching footage for "a person with matching face recognition data points."
The same patent's own worked example: the system texts a subscriber when a camera spots someone "statistically similar to the teenage daughter" of that subscriber. Not a hypothetical critics invented — a use case the company itself patented.
The bigger picture · as of Sept 22, 2026
Monroe joins a wave that's only getting bigger.
This isn't a left or right issue anymore. It's a constitutional one — and leaders on both sides are acting on it.
Florida: Gov. DeSantis ordered Flock cameras removed from state roads Aug 31, saying he didn't want "a surveillance state."
Texas: Gov. Abbott cut off state funding for Flock cameras in late August, and on Sept 17 TxDOT stopped issuing new permits for plate readers on state roads.
Congress: On Sept 15, Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) introduced the bipartisan No FLOCK Act to restrict how these systems can be used. Rep. Cloud said taxpayers shouldn't be forced to fund "the shredding of their own civil liberties," and that Flock cameras are infringing on the Fourth Amendment.
Flock itself: On Sept 18, the company offered voluntary buyouts to its roughly 1,500 employees as it keeps losing customers. One advocacy group counted 93 cities and counties ending their relationship with Flock in August alone.
Close to home: Oxford voted 6–1 to terminate. Lebanon bagged all 20 of its cameras and makes its final decision the same night Monroe votes. Reynoldsburg ended its contract Sept 9. Hamilton County's sheriff paused all 75 county cameras.
Already happening
This system is being misused right now.
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary." — James Madison, Federalist No. 51. The founders didn't build limits on government because they assumed the worst of police. They built them because they understood people. Power that can be misused eventually will be.
That's not a theory. It's already on the record.
Nationwide · Washington Post investigation, August 2026
The Post identified at least 69 police officials accused, charged, or convicted of abusing Flock or similar plate-reader systems — including to track wives, girlfriends, ex-partners, and acquaintances. Many of their own departments didn't know until afterward.
Lufkin, Texas
An officer was indicted on 100 felony counts after allegedly searching his ex-girlfriend and people she knew more than 10,000 times. The department disabled all of its Flock cameras.
Shively, Kentucky · August 26, 2026
An officer was arrested after running 2,048 searches on his child's mother — 241 while she had an active protective order against him. Logged as drug investigations. Flock's own audit caught it, five months later.
San Francisco, California
A pending lawsuit alleges outside agencies searched the city's plate database more than 1.6 million times in six months.
We now know the answer, and it's no
Flock admitted in writing it keeps the data anyway.
Monroe's police chief has told council the data is auto-deleted after 30 days. This month, we found out that isn't the whole story.
A Flock rep tried to sell Sheboygan, Wisconsin its own five years of data — despite a 30-day contract like Monroe's. Racine County's sheriff asked Flock point-blank; Flock confirmed in writing it keeps a separate five-year copy of everyone's data regardless of the contract, and sells access to it. The sheriff had every camera torn down that day. Lebanon's mayor asked the same question weeks earlier and never got an answer either — Lebanon paused its own program on Sept 8 as a direct result.
If Flock will say that in writing to one sheriff, Monroe has no way to know its own "30 days" isn't the same story.
Still not sure? Fair.
The strongest objections, answered straight.
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"My phone already tracks me."
That's tracking you chose, from apps you can delete. Flock tracks you for driving on a public road, with no opt-out, and it's the government holding the record. -
"Nothing to hide, nothing to fear."
That asks innocent people to justify their privacy instead of asking government to justify surveillance — the same assumption that failed in Shively and San Francisco. -
"It's caught real criminals."
True, and also beside the point. A tool is judged by what it makes possible, not just its best use — and Oxford's own police chief admitted his department never even tracked how many cases it solved.
The region is already leaving
Cities near us are ending it, one after another.
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July
Newport, Kentucky
Ended its pilot and removed its cameras.
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Aug 18
Oxford, Ohio
Council voted 6–1 to terminate, overriding its own review commission.
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Aug 24
Independence, Kentucky
Mayor ordered all cameras physically removed after residents asked.
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Sept 8
Lebanon, Ohio
Council paused its program 6–1 pending a final decision Sept 22, after Flock ignored 54 written questions.
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Sept 22
Monroe, Ohio
Council voted 5–0 to pass Ordinance 2026-27, ending the contract.
This worked because people showed up
Keep an eye on what comes next.
The contract is ending. Two things are worth watching to make sure it stays that way.
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Confirm the cameras actually come down
An ordinance ending a contract isn't the same as hardware being removed. Watch for a public timeline from the city.
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Watch for any future surveillance contract
Other towns that ended Flock have seen similar proposals resurface later, sometimes under a different vendor name. The same questions apply every time.
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Tell a neighbor in another town
Lebanon and Butler County towns are having this same fight right now. Send them here: deflockbutlercounty.com
Check everything
Don't take our word for any of it.
Every claim on this page traces to a public document or named reporting. If something here is wrong, we want to correct it.
- Resolution 28-2024 and the full Flock contract — City of Monroe, monroeohio.org/449/2024-Legislation
- Shively, KY officer arrest, 2,048 searches — CNN, KSL, WAVE3, FOX56, August 2026
- Oxford's 6–1 vote — WVXU, Oxford Free Press, August 2026
- U.S. Patent 11,416,545 — Flock Group Inc., granted August 16, 2022 — patents.google.com
- Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018); Chatrie v. United States (2026)
- Washington Post misuse investigation (69 officials) — cited in Rep. Krishnamoorthi press release, Sept 15, 2026
- No FLOCK Act (Cloud R-TX / Krishnamoorthi D-IL) — same release
- Lufkin, TX indictment — Institute for Justice ALPR stalking case list, September 2026
- Texas funding freeze and TxDOT permit pause — Texas Tribune, Sept 17, 2026
- Florida state-road removal order — Aug 31, 2026, reported by Texas Tribune and The Guardian
- Flock buyouts, 93 cities in August — WIRED via TechCrunch/Mashable, Sept 18–19, 2026
- Lebanon pause and Sept 22 decision — WCPO, WHIO, Sept 9, 2026
- Reynoldsburg termination — WSYX/ABC6, Sept 9, 2026