Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey ordered all 75 Flock Safety license plate reader cameras in the county turned off Sept. 3. The shutdown cut deputies' access to the surveillance network and froze payments to the company.
The cameras, which photograph license plates and store the data for law enforcement searches, cover townships and municipalities across Hamilton County.
"As of today, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office will pause our use of this technology … I am not canceling the contract, I am pausing," McGuffey said at a Thursday press conference.
McGuffey said the cameras will stay dark until Flock Safety explains who gets access to the data it collects and Ohio legislators put guardrails on the technology. She said she could not offer a timeline for when the cameras might return.
The sheriff said the pause was not prompted by misuse from any deputies. She said she personally supports the cameras, citing cases in which they helped locate a missing girl taken out of state and a dementia patient who had driven off and was missing for nearly a day.
How the network grew
The sheriff's office began using Flock cameras in 2022 after a grant funded the first 25 devices, according to WCPO. The network expanded to 75 cameras through partnerships with local townships and municipalities, which reimburse the county for cameras in their areas, Major Tony Orue said at the same press conference.
McGuffey said the office plans to cloak or remove the cameras under the terms of its contract, at no additional cost to the county, according to WLWT.
A growing regional pullback
The shutdown makes the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office one of the largest local agencies to step back from Flock. At least eight other Greater Cincinnati communities ended their Flock programs over the summer of 2026, including Newport, Fort Thomas, Independence and Oxford, WLWT reported.
Anderson Township Trustee Tom Hodges called for a pause on the 16 Flock cameras in his township on Wednesday, Sept. 2, saying he was not confident that safeguards were in place to protect residents from potential abuse of the technology, according to Local 12.
In Columbus, Mayor Andrew Ginther paused that city's Flock program to investigate an officer the city's Department of Public Safety said misused the technology.
What it means locally
The Cincinnati Police Department is not part of the sheriff's pause. CPD was still finishing a test run of license plate reader cameras from four vendors, including Flock, as of Thursday. A CPD spokesman said there was no timetable for a contract decision, Local 12 reported.
Cincinnati City Council's Budget, Finance and Governance Committee authorized a $360,000 transfer in May 2026 to fund additional license plate reader cameras for CPD.
The Cincinnati Enquirer confirmed through public records requests that more than 1,100 Flock cameras have been installed across Greater Cincinnati. Ohio lawmakers added a line to the 2025 appropriations bill exempting plate reader images and data from public records, the Enquirer reported.
A Flock Safety spokesman did not respond in time for comment, Local 12 reported. McGuffey said she plans to press both Flock and Ohio legislators for answers.
The cameras remain off. No return date has been set.
