Toledo City Council will vote Oct. 20 on an emergency resolution to remove the city’s Flock Safety cameras and terminate its contracts with the company, setting up a showdown over surveillance and public safety.

Supporters of the cameras say the license plate readers are a valuable crime-fighting tool. Flock says its cameras help solve about 700,000 cases a year, and Toledo police credit them with locating stolen vehicles and hit-and-run suspects faster.

Critics, including Council Member Nick Komives, argue the cameras amount to mass surveillance of innocent people. “I am not at all interested in supporting the surveillance of innocent people,” Komives has said. A recent audit requested by Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken found license-plate data from the county’s Flock system was accessed more than 900,000 times by about 3,200 law enforcement agencies in a single month, fueling concerns about who can see the data and how it might be used, including by immigration authorities.

The city first partnered with Flock in 2022 and now operates about 107 cameras under a three-year contract worth roughly $800,000 signed in November 2025. Council voted in September to audit the system. Tuesday’s vote will decide whether that partnership ends.

Sources: NewsLocker, Midstory