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AUSTINTOWN -- Many expected this month's trustees meeting to focus heavily on Flock cameras.
Instead, only one resident raised the issue, just enough for police Chief Valorie Delmont to provide an update on the department's process and progress with installing the controversial traffic cameras.
"We're just in the very beginning stages of planning for Flock. And we're still, I'm still, going through the education process," Delmont said.
She was responding to resident Doug Wright, who asked a few questions about the six license plate reader cameras that Austintown police plan to install within the next year.
Wright first asked whether the cameras take photos of only the license plate or the entire back end of the vehicle. Delmont explained that it photographs the vehicle as it is passing, closely enough to capture the license plate.
Wright then asked where the information is stored. Delmont said it is stored in Flock's database.
Wright then asked how many agencies have access to that data.
"I just don't know how many agencies," Delmont said. "That changes with every agency that would have a contract with Flock. I don't know how many agencies currently have a contract with Flock."
Wright said that he does not maintain a particular position for or against the cameras and only wants to gather information to better understand the issue and the technology. He told Delmont he was not aware that the 2.22-mill levy voters passed in 2025 covered technology like Flock cameras, saying he thought it only covered personnel and equipment like police cruisers. Delmont clarified that the ballot language did include technology.
She said the township has not installed any cameras yet. The department announced in August that it has signed a three-year $18,000 contract with Flock for six cameras throughout the township.
But she said it hasn't gone any further than that.
"That's all we've done is started the process, so we have no cameras. We don't have access to the system yet. Nobody has access to our account yet," she said. "We don't have anything live. We are in the very beginning planning stages and learning what it can and can't do and how it works. And we're being very conservative in our approach to that. And we are evaluating each step as we go on how those permissions work and how those cameras are accessed."
Delmont also clarified that the township did not secure a grant it was seeking to cover the cost of the cameras, and that amount will have to be paid from the regular police budget.
Flock cameras have earned a notorious reputation over the past year and many departments nationwide have abandoned them and canceled their contracts with the company.
Many of the complaints have to do with how data is stored and who has access, but other concerns focus on misuse by police.
The Institute for Justice has compiled more than 100 alleged incidents involving Flock or other ALPR systems. In Orange City, Florida, for example, Officer Jarmarus Brown allegedly searched his ex-girlfriend's plate at least 69 times, her mother's 24 times and her father's 15 times in 2024.
Wright raised the issue, thinking he was citing a more local case.
"Wasn't there a policeman, I think he was from Stow, he got in trouble for illegally... tracking people?"
However, Wright was most likely referring to a case in Stow, Massachusetts, where officer Jason Rogers was placed on unpaid leave after he was allegedly caught misusing his department's Flock cameras to track someone he knew.
Police advocates in Mahoning County say Flock cameras have been a critical tool in where they already are in place, helping police solve crimes they otherwise might not and even finding missing people quickly.
Township officials say the department is at least 8 to 10 months away from installing cameras and that they are monitoring legislation and political discourse around them very closely.