License plate readers help Ohio police catch suspects; some claim invasion of privacy

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]It's exactly what happened Thursday morning in Newtown after residents on this quiet street woke up to find their cars had been burglarized.

[00:00:07]>> I go out to the car and I notice that the door's ajar on my driver's side.

[00:00:12]And I just knew right away it was a bad sign. Amy Schloss was one of 10 victims on her street, many of whom had their key fobs stolen that start their cars.

[00:00:21]As police responded, one of Amy's neighbors, Stephanie Bronze, checked her security camera and saw that she had caught the alleged culprits on video.

[00:00:29]>> So I yelled down to Jordy and the officer and I'm like, "Hey, come on down. I got the video, you know, the video." We were able to narrow down the license plates on vehicles at specific times and directions.

[00:00:42]And so how did that help you? Oh, it was We would have never If it hadn't been for that neighbor and if it hadn't been for Flock, we would not have been able to associate our incident more than likely with Green Township or Madeira. One of the three cars had been reported stolen that morning from Madeira, another from Fairfield. Police in those jurisdictions had entered their descriptions and license plate numbers into the Flock system as well. A Flock camera observed the cars in Green Township where police chased the suspects to Saint Ignatius School. Canine units caught them. The key fobs were returned to the Newtown residents the same day they were stolen.

[00:01:19]While the system worked great in this case, the technology has also drawn scrutiny. In Kansas, a police chief allegedly used Flock cameras to track his ex-wife and similar allegations have surfaced in Wisconsin and Georgia. Some cities disabled their systems after learning the data had been shared with federal immigration agents. We just have to start putting in guardrails so that people are not their privacy is not invaded every second of the day.

[00:01:47]>> Kentucky Representative Kim Banta just passed a bill that was signed into law last month that put limits on the use of license plate reading technology. And while Lieutenant McBreen understands their concerns, he cannot ignore the success. From a law enforcement standpoint, it's great information to help solve crimes that would probably never have been solved.