Remove
Vote in public to end the Flock program and take down the township-funded cameras. This is the goal, not a fallback.
Remove the cameras. Disclose the records. Pause until then.
Liberty Township is paying for cameras that record everyone who drives by. We want them removed.
Butler Privacy Project is a resident-led effort for transparency and accountability on the automated license plate reader cameras funded in Liberty Township and used across Butler County.
This is not anti-police. We back real investigations. We just don't think a private company should hold a searchable record of where ordinary people drive — approved as an unnamed "technology" line item, paid for from the township's opioid-settlement fund, and overseen by nothing more than one internal audit a year.
The core distinction
A deputy spotting one plate on one road is not the same as a database that remembers where your car has been for months.
Right now: the records are in — the signed contract, policy, and MOU are published on our Records page. The audit logs were denied, and we're pressing for them. The contract auto-renews unless the county gives 30 days' notice.
The ask: remove the township-funded cameras. Pausing them and turning off outside sharing are interim safeguards while that happens, not a substitute for it.
What is the issue?
Liberty Township is paying for automated license plate reader cameras that photograph vehicles as they move through the community. Released public records confirm the deal: a signed January 2026 order for 10 Flock license plate readers at $30,000 a year, added to the township's payments to the Butler County Sheriff's Office, on a 36-month term that renews automatically unless someone gives 30 days' notice.
These cameras don't just flag suspects. They log the movements of everyone who drives past, and that information sits in a searchable database run by a private company. Most of the people in it have done nothing wrong.
A township-wide tracking system is not routine equipment. It should not exist here at all, and we are asking the Trustees to remove it. Disclosure of the contract, sharing settings, and audit records, and a public vote, are part of getting there, not a substitute for it.
Our position
Butler Privacy Project seeks the removal of automated license plate reader infrastructure — Flock or any comparable system — from Liberty Township and Butler County. Restrictions on data sharing, retention, and access can reduce immediate harm, but they do not eliminate the risk created by maintaining a system that continuously records residents' movements. We support those restrictions as interim protections while removal is pending, not as a substitute for it, and we will keep pressing after any partial reform until the cameras themselves come down.
Paid for from the opioid settlement fund
When the Trustees approved the camera funding on February 3, 2026 — unanimously, as "technology needed to provide police services," without the word Flock appearing in the motion — they charged it to account 2904-210-360-0000. Liberty's own budget and resolutions identify that account's fund, Fund 2904, as the township's Ohio Opioid Settlement fund.
We are not claiming that use was unlawful — that determination requires records we have now requested: the invoices, the remediation category, and any written justification. But residents deserve to know that money meant to address the opioid crisis was the funding source their trustees chose for surveillance cameras, and to hear the explanation in public.
What we're asking the Trustees to do
Pause (interim)
Stop using the township-funded cameras while removal is pending and the records and policies are made public.
Disclose (interim)
Release the contract, invoices, policies, sharing settings, and audit records, including who outside the township can search the data.
Why it matters
It records everyone
The cameras capture ordinary residents, workers, and visitors, not just people under investigation.
It builds a history
One plate read is one moment. A stored, searchable database is a map of where your car has been over time.
Approved as 'technology'
Trustees discussed Flock by name in a work session, then approved the funding unanimously two weeks later as 'technology needed to provide police services' — the word Flock never appeared in the motion, no public comments were recorded, and the executed addendum still hasn't been made public.
Outside access is unclear
Residents should know exactly which agencies can pull Liberty-funded data, under what rules, and how those searches are audited.
The records are shielded
Ohio law exempts raw ALPR data from public records — and BCSO has already used that exemption to deny our audit-log request in full. That makes the contracts, policies, and audit memos that ARE public records matter even more.
Security is a real risk
A private surveillance database is a target. Expanding one without independent review and strict access controls invites trouble.
Why Butler County is different
Liberty's cameras are funded through the Butler County Sheriff's Office, which is one of only four Ohio agencies holding both a Flock contract and a 287(g) immigration agreement with ICE. Its deputies were the first in Ohio cleared to act on immigration during routine traffic stops.
We are not saying Liberty's data has been misused. We are saying the risk here is documented, not hypothetical, and it is a reason to remove the cameras, not just to see the sharing settings in writing.
What's happened elsewhere in Ohio
Liberty Township doesn't have to wait for its own problem before answering basic questions. Other Ohio communities already have.
Terminated · 2026
Oxford, Ohio
On August 18, 2026, Oxford City Council — in Butler County — voted 6–1 to terminate the city's Flock contract. Council had been presented with a safeguards package that would have cut sharing from roughly 2,215 agencies to departments in Butler and surrounding counties, and voted 5–2 to amend 'maintain' into 'terminate' before passing the final measure. Mayor Mike Smith said of the system's evolution: 'I don't think we signed up for that.'
WVXU Suspended · 2026
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton suspended its 72 Flock cameras on May 1, 2026 and covered them, after finding its data had been shared far beyond policy. Released logs showed about 7,150 immigration-related searches by more than 140 outside agencies, over half by U.S. Border Patrol. Per those logs, the Butler County Sheriff's Office ran six immigration-related searches since 2023. The city called it 'egregious violations of policy.'
Dayton Daily News Rejected · 2025
Kent, Ohio
Kent City Council voted on Nov. 5, 2025 against letting the police department enter a Flock contract, citing privacy and data-sharing concerns. An Ohio community reviewed the program and chose not to fund it.
The PortagerMore Ohio examples and full sourcing are on the Evidence page.
Where things stand
Records requests filed
3
Sent to
Liberty Township & the Sheriff's Office
Next meeting
Tuesday, Sep 1, 2026 (confirm)
Current phase
Records analyzed — pause-and-document push for Sep 1
Last updated August 26, 2026.
Ask Liberty Township to pause, disclose, and remove.
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