Troy Council Faces Short Agenda and Possibly A Long Conversation

Vol. IV. No. 131 - Flock Cameras Take Center Stage

On Monday, October 5th, Troy City Council meets in regular session. The agenda is short, but it carries a few items that deserve your attention.

The first is a resolution to apply for a grant from the Office of Criminal Justice Services. The money would help buy body cameras for the police department. According to the Safety and Health Committee’s report to council, the current camera contract ends next year. The city is looking at a new contract that would cost about $150,000 a year. The grant would cover equipment, licensing and storage costs over two years. The estimated eligible project cost is just over $111,000. That is a helpful number to keep in mind. A grant application is not a grant award, and it does not cover the whole bill.

Council will also hold its second reading and a public hearing on the new Unified Development Code. This document would replace three separate rulebooks: the zoning code, the sign code and the subdivision regulations. In plain terms, it decides what can be built, where it can go, and how it must look. It touches every neighborhood, whether or not you ever attend a meeting. A public hearing is the moment when residents can speak before council votes. If you have thoughts, this is the time to share them.

The part of the night that will be garnering the closest attention comes near the end. Police Chief Shawn McKinney is scheduled to give a presentation on Flock cameras.

The conversation comes a bit later than originally anticipated. Over the last few meetings, Council has been discussing Ordinance O-32-26 and entertaining the public comments that came with that controversial ordinance, leaving little time for a full throated discussion on the camera system.

This presenation also comes after many communities in Southwest Ohio have suspended the use of the controversial cameras. Lebanon and Monroe each decided to terminate their flock camera contracts last month. Dayton suspended their camera program back in May.

Council first approved a contract with Flock in April 2023. In the early months, the police department sent monthly reports that showed up in council packets. They described crimes the cameras helped solve. That gave council, and the public, a way to see what the city was getting for its money.

Those reports have not been in the packets for at least the last year; this publication last reported on this data in March 2024.

Earlier this year, the Flock system also became part of the story of a senior citizen who was arrested. It began with a property maintenance violation and grew from there. I raise it not to pass judgment, but because it shows how these tools can touch the lives of ordinary residents in ways many people never expected.

The council packet offers no detail on what Chief McKinney plans to cover. That makes it hard to know what to expect. It would be helpful to hear how often the cameras are used, what they have solved, who can see the data, how long it is kept, and what the contract costs each year.

Good technology can make a community safer. Good oversight helps people trust that it is being used well. Those two things work best together.

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