The Worthington City School District is ending its contract with Flock Safety early to prevent a "potential loss of public trust in our schools," Superintendent Trent Bowers said in a Sept. 1 statement.
The district's decision follows a wave of local and national backlash to Flock's cameras, which automatically record license plates and identifying details of passing vehicles.
Worthington Schools used Flock license plate cameras at the main entrances to Thomas Worthington High School, Worthington Kilbourne High School, Linworth Experiential Program and the Worthington Academy. The district only collected license plate data and kept the information internally, according
to Bowers. The district used an Ohio School Safety Grant to fund $30,000 of the $35,000 cost to install the cameras in 2024.
"I have come to believe that the limited benefits we receive from these cameras are not worth the potential loss of public trust in our schools. This is likely a different analysis than a city would make where these cameras have helped solve significant crimes. For us, as our cameras have been limited to internal usage, I’d say the system has been a 'nice extra.' Because of that, I believe it is in our best interest to cancel our contract and remove the devices," Bowers said in a statement.
Worthington Schools renewed its contract with Flock in March 2025 for two years, but there is no additional cost to end it early. Flock, which owns Worthington Schools' cameras, will remove the devices within a "commercially reasonable" timeframe, typically a few weeks, Bowers said.
The district plans to install additional security cameras and adjust the angles of existing ones to cover the high school entrances and exits previously monitored by Flock cameras, Bowers said.
Transportation and neighborhoods reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, @NathanRHart on X and nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Worthington schools ending Flock contract early amid national backlash
