A Sharonville Police officer has been indicted after admitting to using automated license plate reader data to track someone he knew.
Walter Cordes used the Flock Camera system 29 times between December 2024 and last April to find someone for personal reasons.
Sharonville Police Chief Jim Nesbit said in a statement the department instituted new policies and began auditing use of law enforcement databases, including Flock cameras. The statement says Cordes came forward to disclose the personal searches after learning they were flagged during the audit.
"We strengthened our protections to guard against any kind of misconduct, and they helped," Nesbit said. "Any officer who misuses law enforcement tools for personal reasons breaks this community's trust and lets down every officer who does this job the right way."
The 48-year-old lieutenant is charged with unauthorized use of a computer, cable or telecommunication property. That's a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to a year in prison.
Nesbit says Cordes is on administrative leave, and the department is organizing new training for every officer as well as conducting an internal investigation. He also says Flock cameras are "a tremendous resource" that help solve violent crimes and find missing people.
"We'll keep using them, and we'll make sure our officers use them only for valid law enforcement reasons," he said.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich says public trust is undermined when technology is misused.
"We believe effective law enforcement and meaningful accountability go hand in hand, and that transparency and appropriate safeguards are essential to maintaining the public's confidence in our justice system," Pillich said in a statement.
She tells WVXU she'd like to see other departments perform similar system audits.
"As these systems — like Flock cameras and drones and surveillance videos — continue to be more widespread, we need to be sure that we, the law enforcement community, are using them ethically," she said. "One thing I would like to see is that every police department create a policy. Sharonville has a policy now to review and to train their officers that you can't do this for your own personal personal use."
Many jurisdictions in Greater Cincinnati have halted or canceled contracts with Flock Safety over concerns about misuse of the AI-powered automatic license plate readers.
Read more:
