Butler Privacy Project
What we can show from public reporting and records, and what we have formally asked local agencies to release. Where a question is still open, we say so.
Local reporting stated that the township was adding 10 Flock rear license plate readers at an annual cost of about $30,000, added to its payments to the Butler County Sheriff's Office. Current cost, contract terms, renewal status, and camera count remain pending records responses.
Journal-NewsLiberty Township's 2026–2035 Financial Plan lists 'Flock Camera' in the Police Department capital improvement plan, with $35,000 budgeted in 2025 and $35,000 estimated for 2026. The plan describes Flock cameras as small cameras designed to assist law enforcement in a variety of investigations.
2026–2035 Financial PlanLiberty Township funds the cameras through its police-service payments to the Butler County Sheriff's Office. That split is why we sent requests to both the township and the Sheriff's Office.
Journal-NewsLocal officials have described the readers as a useful tool for finding vehicles tied to crimes. We include that view on purpose. The disagreement is about scope, oversight, and consent.
Journal-NewsOn July 8, 2026 we filed public records requests with Liberty Township and the Butler County Sheriff's Office. These are the questions the records should answer.
In 2026, Dayton stopped using its Flock camera data and covered the cameras after an audit found thousands of immigration-related searches by outside agencies, which the city said broke its own policy. Dayton later released the audit data to the public.
Dayton Daily NewsIn June 2026, a Cleveland City Council committee voted against renewing the city's Flock contract. Members questioned whether the license plate readers were actually improving public safety before spending more on them.
Signal ClevelandStored, searchable plate reads can show where a person lives, works, worships, and spends time. Groups like the ACLU and the Brennan Center have documented these risks for years.
EFF explainerAn analysis of millions of Flock searches found police reaching well beyond specific investigations, because in most places no warrant is needed to run a search.
EFF analysisIn Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court held that long-term location tracking can require a warrant, treating a history of movements differently from a single public sighting.
Carpenter v. United StatesThe worry is not only what Liberty's cameras do today. Flock's own product line already reaches past plate reading into vehicle-fingerprint search, video analytics, and other tools. A system that feels limited now is the same system a vendor can expand later.
We keep confirmed local facts separate from what the vendor markets. If something has not been confirmed here in Liberty Township, we say so plainly.
See how the vendor describes the product in its own words.
Flock product pageWe are not claiming these cameras never help an investigation. Sometimes they do, especially in vehicle-related cases. The real question is whether that value is worth recording every resident's movements, and whether it should happen without public consent, clear limits, independent audits, and honest reporting on results.
Journal-News - Source date pending
Local reporting stated that Liberty Township was adding 10 Flock rear license plate readers at an annual cost of about $30,000, added to the township's monthly payments to the Butler County Sheriff's Office. The article also described cloud-based storage, logged search reasons, searches by participating jurisdictions, national database access, and 30-day deletion.
Local relevance: Primary local source that Liberty residents are paying for the cameras. Current cost, contract terms, and camera count remain pending records responses.
WCPO 9 - Source date pending
Local TV coverage of the same Liberty Township camera program, including where the readers were being placed and how the township described their purpose.
Local relevance: Second local outlet reporting the deployment and cost.
Journal-News - Source date pending
Local officials describe why they value the cameras for investigations. Included here so residents can weigh the stated benefits against the privacy and oversight questions.
Local relevance: Presents the other side fairly. The disagreement is about scope, oversight, and consent, not whether cameras ever help.
Liberty Township - 2026–2035 Financial Plan
The township's 2026–2035 Financial Plan lists 'Flock Camera' in the Police Department / Police Fund capital improvement plan, with $35,000 budgeted in 2025 and $35,000 estimated for 2026. The plan describes Flock cameras as small cameras designed to assist law enforcement in a variety of investigations.
Local relevance: Official township document confirming Flock is a budget and trustee accountability item.
Dayton Daily News - 2026
Reports that Dayton found immigration-related searches of its Flock data by outside agencies, covered its cameras, and released the audit data. A nearby Ohio example that these risks are real, not hypothetical.
Local relevance: Shows why the data-sharing and audit questions in our records requests matter for Liberty Township.
Signal Cleveland - 2026
Reports that a Cleveland City Council committee declined to renew the city's Flock contract while members questioned whether the cameras were improving safety.
Local relevance: An Ohio example of elected officials weighing cost and public-safety value before renewing.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
A plain explanation of how ALPR systems work and why stored, searchable location data can reveal where people live, work, worship, and gather.
Local relevance: Background for the difference between one plate read and a database of movements over time.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
An analysis of millions of Flock ALPR searches by police, showing how easily these networks get used well beyond specific investigations without a warrant requirement.
Local relevance: Explains why audit logs and search-reason records are central to our BCSO requests.
U.S. Supreme Court (via Oyez) - 2018
The Supreme Court held that long-term location tracking can require a warrant, recognizing that automated, historical location data is different from a single public observation.
Local relevance: The legal reasoning behind why a searchable movement history raises real constitutional questions.
Flock Safety
Flock's own product page, describing features such as Vehicle Signature and FreeForm search that identify vehicles without a visible plate.
Local relevance: Straight from the vendor, so readers can see what the system is built to do.
DeFlock
A public project for locating and reporting ALPR cameras. Butler Privacy Project is not affiliated with DeFlock unless stated otherwise.
Local relevance: A resource for lawful camera identification and wider context.