BREAKING: A Grand Jury In Clermont County, Ohio Refuses To Indict, Cody Morelock, Who Was Charged With Felony Vandalism For Allegedly Dismantling A Flock Surveillance Camera, Resulting In All Charges Being Dismissed ✅

A grand jury in Clermont County, Ohio has declined to indict Cody Morelock, a man charged with felony vandalism for allegedly destroying a Flock automatic license plate reader camera, resulting in the dismissal of the charges against him, according to Straight Arrow News. Police in Union Township, a Cincinnati suburb, had accused Morelock of disassembling the camera along with its support pole and solar panel on June 13, with investigators estimating the damage at more than $1,000. According to WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, police identified Morelock using surveillance footage from other nearby cameras combined with information tied to a credit card and a customer rewards account. He posted a $10,000 bond and was released shortly after his arrest, and details on exactly why the grand jury declined to indict him remain limited.

The Union Township case lands amid a broader nationwide surge of resistance to Flock’s camera network, which records license plate numbers and vehicle characteristics that feed into a central database accessible not just to local police but often to law enforcement agencies in other cities and states entirely. Dozens of Flock cameras have been vandalized across the country in recent months, including an incident earlier this month in Winona, Minnesota, where someone cut down and stole all eight of the city’s license plate reader cameras. Social media users are now organizing around a loosely coordinated event called “De-Flock America Night,” encouraging people to vandalize or obscure Flock cameras on Halloween.

That backlash has intensified alongside a growing number of documented abuse cases involving the technology, with police officers repeatedly accused of or charged with misusing camera data, often to stalk romantic interests. As of August 12, the Institute for Justice had tracked more than 100 cases of law enforcement abuse of the system. Flock has responded by announcing new safeguards intended to prevent misuse by police, but critics including the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue those reforms are largely “cosmetic” and that searches of license plate reader data should instead require a warrant.