Last updated: October 22, 2026

Toledo, OH: Council fails to take up Flock termination resolution on Oct. 20

Toledo City Council did not reach the nine votes needed to take up Resolution R-435-26 under suspension at its Oct. 20, 2026 meeting. Five members voted against taking it up: Morris, Sarantou, Williams, Martinez, and McPherson. The resolution — which would have requested the termination and non-renewal of all city agreements with Flock Group Inc., removal or deactivation of 107 cameras, and deletion of Flock-generated data — was delayed two weeks and is expected to return Nov. 4, 2026. Existing contracts remain in place.

What happened

At its Oct. 20, 2026 meeting, Toledo City Council failed to reach the nine votes needed to take up Resolution R-435-26 under suspension of the rules. Seven members voted to expedite it; five — Morris, Sarantou, Williams, Martinez, and McPherson — voted against. Ohio municipal procedure requires a supermajority to take up a resolution under suspension, and Toledo’s 12-member council requires nine votes to meet that threshold.

Because the council did not reach nine votes, the resolution was not expedited, not debated, and not passed at that meeting. The termination question was not decided and remains open. Existing Flock contracts — including the stationary-camera contract and the June 2026 portable reader extension — stay in place for now.

What the resolution asks

Resolution R-435-26 is a council resolution — it requests action from city administration rather than directly canceling contracts by its own force. The resolution asks that:

• All city agreements with Flock Group Inc. and its affiliates be terminated and not renewed.
• All Flock equipment be removed or deactivated.
• Flock-generated data be deleted consistent with applicable law — meaning subject to any legal holds, public records obligations, or retention requirements under Ohio law.

The resolution also declares an emergency, which under Ohio municipal law can allow a measure to take effect immediately upon passage rather than after a standard waiting period.

If the resolution passes: City administration would be directed to begin terminating all Flock agreements, removing or deactivating equipment, and initiating a data deletion process. The precise wind-down timeline is not specified in the publicly available resolution text.

If the resolution fails: Existing Flock contracts — including the $800,000 stationary-camera contract and the June 2026 portable reader extension — would remain in place under their current terms. The council could revisit the question at a future meeting.

Toledo's Flock program

Toledo first partnered with Flock Safety in 2022. In November 2025, the city signed its largest Flock contract to date: a three-year, $800,000 agreement covering 107 stationary cameras.

In June 2026, council voted 8-4 to extend a separate contract for four portable license plate readers. That extension requires audits of Flock searches every 12 months. The city has also weighed a five-year contract that would add cameras outside some District 2 schools; that proposal had not been finalized as of the Oct. 20 agenda.

Toledo Police Chief Michael Troendle has defended the cameras, citing access logs and data-sharing agreements as safeguards. Chief Troendle's retirement is recognized on the same Oct. 20 council agenda as the Flock vote.

Regional context

The Toledo vote comes amid broader debate over automated license plate readers across Ohio. Dayton suspended its Flock cameras after an investigation found the system had been scanned for immigration enforcement purposes, a violation of city policy. That case drew attention to how ALPR data can be accessed and for what purposes.

The debate has extended beyond Ohio. In the Texoma region, Sherman, Texas voted 7-0 on Oct. 19, 2026 to end its Flock contract and remove 11 cameras. In Ardmore, Oklahoma, residents launched a recall campaign against four city commissioners over the commission's decision to renew its Flock contract; organizers say they gathered more than 6,000 signatures ahead of an expected February 2027 recall election.

What happens next

The termination question remains open. The resolution was not decided at the Oct. 20 meeting and the question of whether Toledo will end its Flock contracts has not been resolved.

This page will be updated when the Nov. 4 outcome is confirmed. You can browse camera locations reported in Toledo on the Toledo camera map, or see all cities with reported cameras.

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