Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson called Flock license plate readers one of the most valuable law enforcement tools he has seen in his career. All 16 cameras in Anderson Township remain offline under Hamilton County's ongoing pause.

Wilson, appointed in May to replace former Attorney General Dave Yost, issued a formal statement Wednesday, Sept. 16, saying the cameras have helped solve thousands of cases across Ohio. He urged the Ohio General Assembly to criminalize misuse of the technology.

The statement lands two weeks after Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey shut down all 75 of the county's Flock cameras on Sept. 3, including the 16 in Anderson Township. No return date has been set.

Wilson drew a direct comparison to existing Ohio law. Unauthorized use of the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, known as OHLEG, is already a fifth-degree felony that requires convicted officers to surrender their badges. Wilson said that standard should serve as a baseline for any Flock legislation.

He acknowledged that misuse occurs but said it is rare, and that law enforcement agencies themselves identified the problems through internal auditing. Wilson said the cameras are tools of identification for criminal investigations, not tools of surveillance.

Anderson Township Trustee Tom Hodges pushed for the local pause before McGuffey's countywide announcement. "The fact that this data was being shared with so many other agencies that have no accountability to the residents of Anderson Township …" was his central concern, Hodges told WLWT on Sept. 3.

McGuffey, at the same Sept. 3 press conference, stressed she was not ending the Flock contract. She said the pause would hold until stronger guardrails were in place.

The township pays for 10 of its 16 cameras at $3,000 each per year, funded through the 2024 Public Safety levy, according to the Anderson Township Insights newsletter. The sheriff's office covered the original six. Countywide, the 75-camera network costs roughly $225,000 annually, and McGuffey said the county can stop payments during the pause.

The debate has reached the governor's race. Democratic candidate Amy Acton supports a statewide ban on Flock cameras. Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said he opposes a surveillance state but stopped short of backing a ban, WLWT reported Sept. 15. Republican state lawmakers have also introduced bills to regulate the technology, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Neither Hodges nor McGuffey has publicly responded to Wilson's statement. No date has been announced for Anderson Township trustees to formally revisit the Flock pause.