PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Scioto County Prosecuting Attorney Shane Tieman published a lengthy defense of FLOCK Safety license plate reader cameras this week, telling residents in a Facebook post that the technology has repeatedly helped law enforcement agencies solve crimes and recover missing people without infringing on anyone’s constitutional rights.
In the post, Tieman described himself as “unapologetically and unabashedly pro law enforcement” and argued that the automated camera systems, which have drawn privacy objections in communities across Ohio and the country, deserve public support rather than a “ban FLOCK” backlash.
Tieman wrote that FLOCK cameras are fixed devices mounted along public roadways that photograph a passing vehicle’s exterior and license plate, then check that information against state and national law enforcement databases for stolen vehicles, active felony warrants and emergency alerts. He said the cameras do not use facial recognition, do not track personal identities and do not monitor individual driving habits.
He pointed to cases outside Ohio that he said showed the technology’s value, writing that regional FLOCK cameras helped authorities track a suspect vehicle in an alleged child abduction from Quincy, Illinois, to the Wisconsin-Minnesota border, where the child was recovered safely. He also cited Palm Springs, California, police attributing more than 30 felony arrests to automated plate alerts, and a case in Orange County, North Carolina, in which deputies said the cameras helped them locate an 86-year-old woman with memory loss who had driven into South Carolina.
Tieman argued that the systems also help investigators verify a suspect vehicle’s make, model, color and registration after crimes such as shootings or burglaries, filling gaps left by incomplete eyewitness descriptions.
Addressing privacy concerns, Tieman wrote that courts have not recognized a reasonable expectation of privacy in what is visible from outside a vehicle traveling on a public road, since license plates exist specifically to identify vehicles in public. He also contrasted the cameras with the amount of location and personal data that smartphone apps and social media platforms collect from users who voluntarily share it.
He wrote that FLOCK data is typically deleted on a rolling 30-day cycle unless it is tied to an active criminal investigation, that access is limited to authorized law enforcement personnel with a legitimate policing purpose, and that every search creates a digital audit trail intended to prevent misuse.
Tieman has served as Scioto County’s prosecuting attorney since he was appointed to the post in July 2018 and elected that November to complete an unexpired term; he was reelected to a full term in 2020. He is a 1991 graduate of Clay High School who earned a social sciences degree from Ohio State University in 1995 and a law degree from Ohio Northern University’s law school in 1998. After law school he worked as a Portsmouth city prosecutor and as an assistant prosecuting attorney under former County Prosecutor Lynn Grimshaw, later serving in private practice and as a magistrate before returning to the prosecutor’s office as an assistant under Mark Kuhn in 2010.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Scioto County Prosecutor’s Office.
