The Flock cameras in Marion are here to stay for another year.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office was awarded more than $70,000 from the Ohio Department of Public Safety to go toward funding the cameras. The current grant was set to expire July 1; with the new funds, the grant will expire June 30, 2027.
Marion County has 34 Flock cameras which were installed around the county in 2023. The cameras are used as license plate readers are pointed toward the street. As cars pass, a photo of the license plate is taken and stored in the sheriff’s office database. After a period of time, those photos are deleted.
Readers can’t capture video or move to change the angles. Agencies around the country that use Flock cameras can request data collected by other participating agencies.
“They can send a request to us requesting access to the data that pulls from our [cameras],” Captain Ryan Zempter said. “And then we, in turn, can request a share from them. So it’s not an automatic share. You have to request that share with the agency.”
While the cameras are managed through the county, Marion Police Department can and has used Flock cameras in their own investigations. Chief Jay McDonald explained officers have used the cameras to locate a missing 11-year-old boy, thefts and hit-skips.
“They make Marion safer,” McDonald said.
In March, Flock cameras became a topic of discussion at a Marion City Council committee meeting. Residents questioned how Flock cameras were being used and expressed privacy concerns. Police argued the cameras acted as a force multiplier, supplying evidence of crime around the county.
“I understand people asking questions, for sure,” McDonald said. “Concerns and the questions are natural with things that are new, but some of the discussion is not rooted in fact.”
The county has approved the grant, and it will not need to be approved by Marion City Council.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion extends use of Flock license plate cameras
Reporting by Abby Bammerlin, Marion Star / Marion Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Abby Bammerlin, Marion Star | USA TODAY Network
