DAYTON — The city of Dayton is in the final stages of hiring an outside law firm to investigate the misuse of the city’s Flock cameras.
In May, city leaders suspended the program because the police chief said the department misused the technology. A few weeks later, the city put bags on all of its cameras.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026, City Commissioner Daryl Fairchild told News Center 7 the city signed a contract to hire an outside law firm to investigate.
City leaders have not decided on the Flock program’s future.
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News Center 7’s Xavier Hershovitz talked with city commissioners who said they have several questions they hope the independent investigation will answer.
The city has more than 70 Flock cameras around the city. They’ve been covered up since May, when that misuse first came to light.
Now, city commissioners want to know what happened that violated the policies they put in place.
Commissioner Matt Joseph said, “We’re trying to figure out how we get information that helps to solve crimes but doesn’t infringe on people’s basic rights.”
Joseph said he thought the city addressed concerns about Flock cameras before they ever went up.
“Very clear, written in emails, in policy, passed as a policy on the commission dais, but they weren’t followed. So, I want to know what broke down,” Joseph said.
Dayton Police said Flock data was misused in October of 2025. Then, police went to commissioners in January of 2026 and asked for more technology.
Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein said, “It does reveal egregious violations.”
However, the misuse was not revealed to city leaders until May of 2026.
The city is now in the final stages of hiring an outside law firm to independently investigate what happened.
“Obviously, something went wrong,” Joseph said.
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In a statement to News Center 7, Commissioner Darius Beckham said it was “negligent to ask for additional Flock technology in January, knowing about the misuse in October.” He also said, “The ordinance was not followed, and we must decide if the technology will stay or go.”
Fairchild also has concerns with the timeline and looks forward to this independent investigation.
“We need to know, and particularly who knew what around the failures and when they knew it and why that wasn’t particularly disclosed in January,” Fairchild said.
News Center 7 reached out to Dayton Police on Tuesday with questions about the timelines between the misuse in October, asking for more technology in January, and the misuse being reported in May.
News Center 7’s Xavier Hershovitz followed up with Dayton Police several times today. Spokesperson James Rider provided the following statement:
The Dayton Police Department halted use of Automated License Plate Readers (APLR) indefinitely while an independent review was conducted.
As a result of an internal review, it was determined that the former Commander of the Support Services Division failed to implement the safeguards he helped develop and present in the Surveillance Impact Report to the Dayton City Commission and community. Due to this failure, this person will no longer serve in the Dayton Police Department.
In October 2025, the Department identified a higher-than-expected level of data sharing within its fixed-site ALPR system. An internal review found that a network sharing feature had been enabled, allowing broader access to data than originally intended. DPD then disabled this feature and limited data sharing to law enforcement agencies within the State of Ohio.
A comprehensive review determined that certain required processes outlined in the City of Dayton’s Surveillance Impact Report had not been fully implemented. These included:
- Required approval for external data sharing by the Support Services Division Commander or designee
- Documentation ensuring data would not be used for immigration enforcement purposes
- Notification to the Dayton City Commission regarding data sharing relationships
An administrative investigation was initiated to determine how these lapses occurred. The investigation found that enabling automatic sharing functions resulted in approximately 7,100 search requests citing immigration-related purposes from various law enforcement agencies.
These requests were not specific to Dayton, and at this time, the Department cannot confirm whether any data was returned or whether action was taken based on those searches.
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