Public Records Requests | Butler Privacy Project

Requests we've filed

Date filed	Agency	Subject	Status	Response	Summary	Documents
July 8, 2026	Liberty Township	Flock/ALPR contracts, funding, approvals, communications, and retention category	Partially Fulfilled	August 4, 2026	Contracts, invoices, Police Fund and budget records, Board of Trustees agenda items and minutes, communications with Flock Safety and the Sheriff's Office, camera counts and models, outside-agency access, retention and audit procedures, and any planned expansion. Covers January 1, 2022 to present. Does not seek raw plate images or individual plate reads.	PDF 1 PDF 2
July 8, 2026	Butler County Sheriff's Office	ALPR/Flock policy, retention, sharing, and outside-agency access	Fulfilled	August 3, 2026	Current and prior Flock/ALPR policies, training materials, retention schedules and settings, external-sharing configuration, the list of agencies able to search Liberty-funded data, federal-agency access, and any rules on immigration-related searches. Covers January 1, 2023 to present. Does not seek raw plate images or individual plate reads.	PDF 1 PDF 2 PDF 3 PDF 4 PDF 5
July 8, 2026	Butler County Sheriff's Office	Liberty Township ALPR/Flock search logs, audit logs, outcomes, and false-hit records	Denied	August 3, 2026	Audit, access, and search logs for Liberty-funded ALPR data; aggregate use and outcome reports; records of any outside-agency, federal, or immigration-related searches; hotlist sources; hit-verification procedures; and any false-hit, complaint, or discipline records. Covers January 1, 2023 to present. Does not seek raw plate images or individual plate reads.	PDF 1
Draft	Butler County Sheriff's Office	Annual ALPR audit memoranda and FlockOS report outputs (narrowed follow-up)	Drafted	Pending	The annual internal audit memoranda to the Chief Deputy that BCSO Policy 4.36 requires — internal memos, not database data — plus the reporting outputs BCSO's signed Flock order lists as included features: network audit reports, plate read reports, hot list alert reports, event logs, and outcome reports, from December 2024 to present.	—
Draft	Butler County Board of Commissioners	Approvals covering the signed $90,000 Flock order (Q-182249 / PO 26001504)	Drafted	Pending	All resolutions, approvals, or amendments authorizing the Flock order signed January 22, 2026 — $30,000 per year for 36 months, $90,000 total — given that Resolution 24-12-01823 approved a contract not to exceed $29,000 effective December 2024 to December 2026.	—
Draft	Liberty Township	Fund 2904 (opioid settlement) expenditure records and remediation justification	Drafted	Pending	All invoices, warrants, and accounting entries charged to account 2904-210-360-0000 for the technology authorized February 3, 2026, plus any memorandum, eligibility determination, or settlement-use analysis explaining the use of Liberty's Ohio Opioid Settlement fund for that expenditure.	—
Draft	Liberty Township	Executed Addendum #2 and the complete 2025 police-services contract chain	Drafted	Pending	The fully executed Addendum #2 approved by the Trustees on February 3, 2026 — the funding vehicle for the cameras — with every exhibit and incorporated document, plus the executed January 1, 2025 Police Services Contract and all addenda, including term, renewal, termination, and data-disposition provisions.	—
Draft	Butler County Sheriff's Office	The master agreement ('the Terms') incorporated in signed Flock order Q-182249	Drafted	Pending	The 'previously executed agreement (the "Terms")' that the signed January 22, 2026 order form states it incorporates — the master services agreement governing the BCSO–Flock relationship, where termination, data, and security clauses live.	—
Draft	Butler County Sheriff's Office	Current ALPR configuration, sharing lists, camera inventory, and Aug 2026 safeguard adoption	Drafted	Pending	Existing administrative records showing the Flock organization holding Liberty-funded cameras, the device inventory, the currently configured retention period, external-sharing and National Lookup / federal settings, and whether Flock's August 2026 safeguards (7-day retention, Audit Assistance, MFA, case codes) were adopted.	—
Draft	City of Dayton	Previously released Flock audit-log records — Butler County agency entries	Drafted	Pending	The Flock audit-log records Dayton released in June 2026, or at minimum the entries where the searching agency is BCSO or another Butler County agency — converting the press-reported 'six BCSO immigration-related searches' into primary-source rows.	—

What the records show

Every document received is published here in full, exactly as produced. A second Liberty Township resident's independent request to BCSO produced the identical documents and the identical denial, which corroborates that this is the complete production.

Public record

Flock order form — 10 cameras, $30,000/yr, auto-renewing

Signed by BCSO's Finance Director on January 22, 2026: 10 Flock LPR cameras plus the Flock platform at $30,000 per year for a 36-month initial term ($90,000 total). The order automatically renews for successive terms unless either party gives 30 days' notice of non-renewal. The included FlockOS package lists State Network and Nationwide Network plate lookup, real-time NCIC alerts, unlimited custom hot lists, Vehicle Fingerprint search, and reporting tools including network audits, plate read reports, event logs, and outcome reports.

BCSO production

Public record

BCSO ALPR Policy 4.36 (issued November 25, 2025)

The Sheriff's Office ALPR policy: no reasonable suspicion or probable cause is required to use the system; outside law enforcement agencies are granted camera access at designated administrators' discretion; each search must log a CAD, report, or case number; Flock purges data at 30 days but BCSO may download and retain data beyond that; oversight is one random internal audit per year, documented in a memo to the Chief Deputy. The policy says nothing about federal or immigration-related access.

BCSO production

Public record

Flock–BCSO data-sharing MOU (signed June 23, 2022)

A five-year, no-cost memorandum of understanding giving BCSO search access to Flock's network of recordings. Flock retains ownership of the data and 'the right to use the foregoing for any purpose in Flock's sole discretion.' Flock's liability is capped at the fees paid or $100, whichever is greater, and the indemnification section is marked 'Intentionally Omitted.'

BCSO production

Public record

County commissioners' approval (December 16, 2024)

Resolution 24-12-01823: the Butler County Board of Commissioners approved a no-bid contract with Flock Group Inc. for license plate recognition camera hardware and software, 'at a cost not to exceed $29,000.00, effective December 2024 to December 2026.' Adopted 2-0 with one commissioner excused.

BCSO production

Public record

Liberty Township's response letter (August 3, 2026)

The Township's Law Director responded that BCSO — not the Township — is the contracting party with Flock, that the Township holds no BCSO records and no responsive fiscal records, and that two requests were denied as overbroad. The letter repeatedly references attached records, but only the letter itself was delivered; we have asked for the referenced attachments.

Liberty Township

Public record

BCSO's denial of the audit and search-log request (August 3, 2026)

BCSO denied the request for audit logs, search logs, and outcome records in full, on the sole ground that they are 'data maintained in a law enforcement database,' exempt under R.C. 149.43(A)(1)(yy) — with no partial production and no aggregate counts. Dayton released this same category of records in June 2026.

BCSO records office

Documented open questions

The records answer a lot, and they also raise questions we have now put back to the agencies. We are not alleging misconduct — we are asking for the records that would explain each gap.

$29,000 approved — $90,000 signed

The county commissioners approved a Flock contract "not to exceed $29,000... effective December 2024 to December 2026." The order BCSO's finance director signed in January 2026 totals $90,000 over 36 months. We've asked the commissioners for whatever approval covers the signed order.

"No fiscal records" — but a budget line exists

The Township's letter says it has no fiscal records for the cameras. The Township's own published 2026–2035 Financial Plan budgets $35,000 in 2025 and $35,000 estimated for 2026 under "Flock Camera." We've asked for the records behind that line item.

Three years in the network before a written policy

BCSO signed its data-sharing MOU with Flock in June 2022. Its ALPR policy was issued in November 2025 — roughly three and a half years later. What rules, if any, governed use and outside access in between is undocumented.

The executed Addendum #2 has never surfaced

Liberty's February 3, 2026 minutes approve "Addendum #2" to the BCSO police-services contract — the funding vehicle for the cameras — but the executed addendum and its exhibits appear in no public packet, and the Township's response produced only a letter. It is a Liberty record, squarely responsive to our request, and we have asked for it by name.

Charged to the opioid-settlement fund

The same minutes charge the ~$30,000 annual cost to account 2904-210-360-0000 — an account Liberty's own budget places in Fund 2904, its Ohio Opioid Settlement fund. Whether a Flock invoice was ultimately paid from settlement proceeds, and under what remediation rationale, is exactly what our follow-up request asks.

A denial that the records contradict

BCSO denied all audit and log records as exempt "data maintained in a law enforcement database." But its own policy requires an annual audit memo to the Chief Deputy — an internal memo, not database data — and its signed order lists network audit reports, event logs, and outcome reports as included product features. Dayton released this same category of records. Our narrowed follow-up addresses the exemption directly.

How records requests work

Liberty Township

The township's public records policy says records are held by office, department, or function custodians, that requesters do not have to identify themselves or give a reason, and that the township will either satisfy a request within a reasonable time or acknowledge it in writing within three business days.

Butler County Sheriff's Office

The Sheriff's Office public records policy says records are public unless a specific exemption applies, that unclear requests should be clarified with the requester, that any denial or redaction must cite legal authority, and that there is no charge for documents sent by email.

We asked for electronic records and placed a fee cap on each request.

What the requests cover

Contracts and invoices

Policies and procedures

Camera locations and models

Data sharing settings

Outside agency access

Audit logs

Search logs

Hotlist procedures

False hits and complaints

Vendor communications

Future expansion / additional sensors

Federal agency access

Immigration-related searches

Security incidents and vulnerabilities

Use this as a template

Want to file your own request? Here's a short version you can adapt. Send it to the township or the Sheriff's Office and keep a copy of the date.

Pursuant to Ohio's Public Records Act, I request copies of records relating to automated license plate readers, Flock Safety cameras, or ALPR systems used, funded, accessed, or maintained for Liberty Township, Butler County, Ohio.

Please provide contracts, renewals, purchase orders, invoices, quotes, statements of work, board resolutions, meeting packets, agenda items, memos, staff reports, presentations, policies, camera lists, data-sharing agreements, sharing settings, audit logs, search logs, hotlist procedures, false-hit reports, complaints, vendor communications, and any documents discussing future expansion or additional surveillance integrations.

This request does not seek raw license plate images or individual plate reads. If any portion is exempt, please redact only that portion and provide the rest, citing the specific legal basis.

Not in Liberty Township? The template generalizes: swap in your own city or township and send it to that jurisdiction's records custodian. If you want to lead the same push where you live in Butler County, see the county tracker and email us — we'll share what we've learned and help you get started.