An Ohio police lieutenant has been indicted after prosecutors said he used his department's Flock license plate reader cameras 29 times to track someone he knew.
Walter Cordes, 48, a lieutenant with the Sharonville Police Department in a Cincinnati suburb, searched the system between Dec. 19, 2024, and April 20, 2026, for reasons unrelated to police work, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office. A grand jury indicted him Oct. 13 on one count of unauthorized use of a computer, cable or telecommunication property, a fifth-degree felony that carries up to 12 months in prison under Ohio law.
Prosecutors have not identified the person Cordes allegedly tracked or said why he searched for them. The searches came to light in June when Cordes self-reported during a department audit and later admitted them in an interview, which triggered an investigation by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.
Sharonville Police Chief Jim Nesbit told WKRC the audit found other improper use that the department addressed, and said 'Lt. Cordes came forward to share that he too had misused the system.' The department said Cordes has been placed on administrative leave while it finishes its own investigation.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said in a statement, 'When technology is misused, it undermines public trust.' Pillich said Cordes is the first law enforcement official her office has charged with misusing the technology since she took office.
The case lands amid broader scrutiny of Flock, the surveillance startup whose cameras let police departments reconstruct where a car has been. Flock told Fortune it has raised $500 million at an $8.3 billion valuation and said it is adding customers faster than it loses them.
The company is facing pressure from a string of recent cases. In September, prosecutors in Marion County, Indiana, charged five Indianapolis police officers with misusing their access to Flock cameras. One officer allegedly looked up the location of his ex-wife's car more than 950 times over six months. On Oct. 7, a former Joliet, Illinois, police lieutenant, Jeremy Harrison, was charged with computer tampering and official misconduct over his use of the city's Flock system, according to FOX 32.
Several jurisdictions have also pulled back. In August, Tempe and Cave Creek ended their Flock contracts on the same day, with Cave Creek citing privacy concerns and cases of misuse. Around Greater Cincinnati, many jurisdictions have halted or canceled their Flock contracts over misuse concerns, including the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, which investigated Cordes, WVXU reported.
The market has already voted on this kind of technology: every search is logged, every abuse leaves a paper trail, and every misuse feeds the case for tighter limits. Free enterprise can reward tools that improve security, but only when the rules are clear and the oversight is real. When public agencies blur that line, the taxpayer pays for the scandal and the public pays with trust.
