The Dayton Police Department indefinitely suspended the use of its Automated License Plate Readers, pending an independent review.
An ongoing internal police review determined that a former commander of the Support Services Division didn't implement safeguards to restrict who could access the data collected by the cameras, despite city policy limiting how the information could be used.
That included 7,100 search requests citing immigration-related purposes from various law enforcement agencies.
The department can't confirm if any agencies took any actions related to the city's data, outgoing Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said in a new conference on Friday, May 1, 2026.
The unidentified commander no longer works for the department, Afzal said.
"It was definitely user error," he said. "It's not a system issue, it's an us issue."
Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein said at the news conference that while the investigation doesn't indicate any intentional wrongdoing, the "egregious violations of policy" deteriorate trust.
"Our city commission went through great lengths working with community representatives to create thoughtful and intentional policy directions that put important guardrails in place to ensure the responsible use of technology within our community," she said. "And today, it is very clear that we failed to execute on that direction."
Citizen groups have warned about the potential dangers of surveillance technology for years. In 2021, the city of Dayton passed an ordinance that requires any new technology that the police department intends to acquire go before city commissioners, and requires a usage policy and an impact report. Additionally, public notice must be given and a public hearing has to be held.
"There was a public hearing for the police to acquire the license plate readers and there was a lot of pushback from the community at that point telling the police that you don't have safeguards in place," said Melissa Bertolo of the the Coalition On Public Protection. "We were telling the commission that these safeguards are not here, and laid out all of the same concerns that we just saw. This was predicted, unfortunately, that this is what was going to happen by acquiring this technology."
A comprehensive review determined that certain required processes outlined in the city's Surveillance Impact Report weren't fully implemented, including:
- Required approval for external data sharing by the Support Services Division commander or designee.
- Documentation ensuring data wouldn't be used for immigration enforcement purposes.
- Notification to the Dayton City Commission regarding data sharing relationships.
In August, Flock Safety, the vendor used by the Dayton Police Department announced that it engaged in limited pilot programs with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security investigations, but that it was halting all federal pilot programs.
"In October, as the new majors took their positions, the major of the Support Services identified higher than expected level of data sharing," Afzal said in Friday's press conference. "We realized that our data was being shared with way too many people. So in November of 2025, we disabled the data sharing outside of the state."
The automated license plate reader program was initially approved in July of 2022, with then-Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. and Commissioners Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw voting in favor of the technology, and Commissioners Shenise Turner-Sloss and Darryl Fairchild voting against.
In January, the city of Dayton received a grant to expand its ALPR program with 27 new cameras. In the commission meeting where the camera expansion was discussed, Afzal and Maj. Hall responded to concerned community members, saying that the city’s contract with Flock contains provisions against searches that include immigration, reproductive rights and other specific cases.
Afzal said Friday it wouldn't go forward with that expansion at this time.
