Worthington City Council has voted to suspend sharing the city's Flock data with outside law enforcement agencies.
Council's 6-1 vote at its Sept. 21 meeting came after almost two hours of discussion on the cameras, their effectiveness, their possible use in immigration enforcement, and citizen privacy concerns. Council member Maria Ramirez, who said she wants Flock cameras out of Worthington entirely, was the sole no vote on the motion to suspend sharing. A representative for Flock was present online during the council's discussions.
Before the pause, Worthington shared its Flock data with other Ohio law enforcement agencies, but not federal law enforcement or law enforcement agencies partnered with ICE, acting Worthington Police Chief Jeff Kubasek
told council.
Council’s motion also directed city staff to give a status report on Flock cameras in December and to pursue memorandums of understanding with other communities that Worthington may share Flock data with in the future.
Worthington has 14 Flock license plate readers located around the entrances to the city. They were first installed along the Huntley Road corridor in 2023 at the urging of local businesses concerned about a spate of catalytic converter thefts. Worthington later decided to expand their use to its major entrances, Kubasek told council.
Kubasek said the license plate readers have helped the city’s police officers make arrests on car thefts, find missing people and recover stolen vehicles.
Several council members said they were concerned about other agencies misusing Worthington’s data or lying about their reasons for accessing the city’s information. Ramirez, who led much of the discussion on Flock, pointed to the Trump administration’s actions as the reason for her opposition to the cameras.
“In 2023, when this decision was made, the data wasn't there. The idea of this ability to watch what people are doing, those dangers seemed kind of abstract. And then things have changed. The context has changed. We now have people who are getting kidnapped, placed into what could be described as concentration camps. I never thought I would see something like that in this country,” Ramirez said.
According to the city, Worthington police leaders review Flock system usage every week, and the city has opted in to a tool that automatically alerts leadership of unusual searches.
Worthington's vote comes amid a wave of local and national backlash to Flock cameras. Columbus and Reynoldsburg have both dropped the company's cameras after evidence of officers misusing the system was discovered by the cities. Hilliard also recently paused its Flock cameras, but not in response to any misuse, according to the city.
The Worthington City School District ended its Flock contract earlier in September to prevent a "potential loss of public trust in our schools," Superintendent Trent Bowers previously said.
Shortly before the vote, Council President Rachael Dorothy said she was concerned about getting rid of the cameras entirely and removing the city's tools to reduce crime.
"But people do behave better if they know they could be caught, and hopefully we are reducing crime, but I'm very comfortable with pausing this and getting the guardrails," she said.
Worthington previously denied a public records request from The Dispatch for the city's audits of its Flock network. These audits would show every time a Worthington employee searched the Flock system, and any time the city's data was used in a national search by an outside law enforcement agency. Other central Ohio communities like Columbus, Delaware, Grove City and Obetz have provided The Dispatch with those records.
At the time of publication, Worthington's Flock cameras had recorded 378,052 license plates over the past 30 days.
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 City Council votes to suspend external sharing of Flock data
