ASHVILLE, Ohio — The Ashville Police Department says it does not operate any Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras in the village, pushing back against what it described as misinformation circulating in the community about surveillance technology being used on local streets.
“There are no Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras operated by the Ashville Police Department,” the department said in a notice posted to its Facebook page. The department asked residents to help “stop the spread of misinformation by sharing accurate information with friends, neighbors, and community members,” and directed anyone with questions about surveillance technology used in the village to contact the police department or village officials.
Flock Safety, based in Atlanta, is the largest manufacturer of automated license plate reader systems in the country, with a network the company says includes more than 120,000 cameras and contracts with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. The cameras, typically mounted on poles along roadways, photograph passing vehicles and use artificial intelligence to log plate numbers along with a vehicle’s make, model, color and other identifying features, building a searchable database of vehicle movements. Departments can set the system to alert officers when a car tied to a crime, a stolen-vehicle report or a missing-person case passes a camera, and many agencies share that data with neighboring departments.
The cameras have expanded rapidly across central Ohio in recent years. A public-records review by public radio station WOSU found that 15 police departments across Franklin County had spent nearly $2 million combined on Flock camera contracts, including the Columbus Division of Police and Upper Arlington police. The technology has also drawn scrutiny from civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which has raised concerns about the size of the vehicle-tracking databases the cameras create and about who can access them.
Ashville, a village of roughly 4,760 residents in Pickaway County about eight miles north of Circleville, is led by Police Chief Bryan Cline. The department did not say in its notice what prompted the rumor about license plate readers in the village.
The department said residents with questions about what surveillance technology is or is not in use in Ashville should reach out directly to the police department or village officials rather than rely on secondhand information. “Stay informed. Verify before you share,” the notice said.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Ashville Police Department.
