Grand jury declines to indict Ohio man charged with destroying Flock camera

A grand jury in Clermont County, Ohio, has declined to indict a man who had been charged with felony vandalism for allegedly destroying a Flock automatic licence plate reader camera, and the charges were dismissed.

What the police alleged

Police in Union Township, a suburb of Cincinnati, accused Cody Morelock of taking apart the camera, its support pole and its solar panel on 13 June. According to WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, investigators identified Morelock after obtaining surveillance footage from other cameras near the scene as well as information linked to a credit card and a customer rewards account. Police estimated the damage at more than 1,000 dollars. Morelock posted a 10,000-dollar bond and was released from custody shortly after his arrest. The grand jury’s decision means the case will not go to trial; the reasons behind it have not been detailed.

A wider backlash against Flock

The dismissal comes amid growing resistance to Flock’s network of cameras, which record the licence plate numbers and characteristics of passing vehicles. The data is stored in a central database that can be queried not only by local police but often by law enforcement agencies in other cities and states. Dozens of Flock cameras have been vandalised across the United States. Earlier in August, police in Winona, Minnesota, reported that someone had cut down and stolen all eight of the city’s plate reader cameras. Online, users have been promoting a loosely organised event called “De-Flock America Night”, which encourages people to vandalise or obscure Flock cameras on Halloween.

Abuse cases and new safeguards

The criticism has intensified as a growing number of police officers have been accused of, or charged with, abusing the technology, often to track romantic interests. As of 12 August, the Institute for Justice had logged more than 100 cases of ALPR abuse by law enforcement. Flock has announced new safeguards intended to prevent misuse by police, but critics including the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue the reforms are largely “cosmetic” and say a warrant should be required to search plate reader data.