Just after 9 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2025, a Columbus Police officer made six searches of Flock license-plate camera records within 10 minutes.
The reason listed for his searches: “ICE.”
The officer was searching the network of AI-powered automated license plate cameras for a GMC pickup that could have been silver or grey. Half of his searches included just one network and the other half included 287 Flock networks, according to data police shared with The Dispatch.
Police mentioned his searches in a footnote for the agency’s “executive summary” of a recent audit of nearly 20 million Flock data requests, but said that there will be “further inquiry pending.”
Mayor Andrew Ginther also said that any misuse within the department would be investigated in a July 10 statement.
The audit also identified 14 other potential immigration-related searches from Columbus Police officers, which the executive summary defines as “general assistance to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).” HSI is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Since 2017, Columbus has banned officers from assisting with civil immigration enforcement.
The officer did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Dispatch is not naming the officer at this time, as they have not been accused of wrongdoing.
How is Columbus Police approaching the ‘further inquiry’?
Columbus Police Deputy Chief Tim Myers said the officer has “certainly not” been put on leave while the organization looks into what happened. He added that it’s unclear if the officer’s searches violated department policies at the time.
“We’re not going to discipline somebody for not violating a policy – we’re still going to find out the answer,” Myers said.
Myers said: “It is incumbent of us as an organization to direct the work of our officers. I believe very strongly that structure generates behavior. It is more important to understand the ‘why’ of how these searches have occurred and if the things that we’ve done already – the systems we’ve put in place since that time – have put us in a better place.”
Ginther signed a 2017 executive order prohibiting city resources for civil immigration infractions. City council also passed legislation later that year that effectively codified part of Ginther’s order.
“‘Civil’ is doing a lot of work there,” Myers said. “I understand completely the concerns around Immigration and Customs Enforcement, particularly within the last year and a half. The reality is that ICE, more particularly HSI but also other parts, do have criminal offenses that they investigate.”
He added that police partner with law enforcement at the federal, state and local level “all the time” on criminal investigations and “we’re going to keep doing that, but we’re going to make sure that we’re doing that in a way that is responsive to what the community will support.”
ICE data published by the Deportation Data Project shows that HSI was involved with arresting at least seven people in central Ohio in 2025. Two of those people had been convicted of a crime, three had pending charges and two had civil immigration infractions.
The officer who searched “ICE” has made more searches of Flock data than most other police officers, according to the audit. He made over 5,000 inquiries of the system since Columbus Police had access starting in November 2023 through the end of June.
Just 12 other identified Columbus Police personnel have made more Flock searches than the officer, among nearly 1,400 people who have searched the data.
The officer made several other searches of Flock cameras on Feb. 3, 2025, before and after searching “ICE” as the reason for the search. They did 15 searches with the reason listed as “45” and two with “16.” The Columbus police dispatch code 45 corresponds with a stolen/suspected stolen vehicle or a lost/stolen license plate, while “16” is for a disturbance.
What is the city’s policy on immigration enforcement?
Ginther signed his executive order on immigration policy on Feb. 3, 2017, less than a month into President Donald Trump’s first term.
The order says Columbus will support placement or settlement of “aliens eligible to be admitted to the United States as refugees,” that city employees cannot “deny equal access to city services based on immigration status unless required by law or court order.”
It also says no city resources, including personnel, can be used “for the sole purpose of detecting or apprehending persons based on suspected immigration status, unless in response to a court order.” It explicitly bars city employees from requesting information about, investigating or assisting in investigations of a person’s immigration status unless a warrant exists, a criminal violation was reported, or an arrest was made.
Immigration status is a civil case.
“It shall be the policy of the City of Columbus to vigorously oppose any effort to require the use of localtaxpayer resources for the enforcement of federal immigration policy,” the order concludes.
Council followed that order in June 2017 by adopting an ordinance that put the same ideas into city code. The law says no city employee can use city resources “for the sole purpose of detecting or apprehending any person based on the person’s suspected immigration status, except in response to a court order.”
No penalties are listed for violating those provisions.
In February, council added several provisions to the code, including a ban on Columbus employees holding secondary employment with ICE and Border Patrol. Violators are “subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
Dispatch reporter Jordan Laird contributed reporting.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers regional/trending news for The Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus officer searched Flock for ‘ICE’ six times in 10 minutes
Reporting by Anna Lynn Winfrey, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Anna Lynn Winfrey, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
