Lieutenant indicted for tracking

Walter Cordes, a forty eight year old lieutenant with the Sharonville Police Department, has been indicted on a felony charge for allegedly using Flock license plate reader cameras to track someone he knew.

Twenty nine searches for personal reasons

Between December nineteenth, twenty twenty four, and April twentieth, twenty twenty six, Cordes searched the Flock system twenty nine times to find the person's whereabouts for personal reasons unrelated to police work.

Self-reported during department audit

The searches came to light in June when Cordes self-reported during a department audit of the system, then admitted to them in an interview.

“Lt. Cordes came forward to share that he too had misused the system.”

Felony charge and broader pattern

A grand jury indicted Cordes on October thirteenth on one count of unauthorized use of a computer, cable or telecommunication property, a fifth degree felony carrying up to twelve months in prison under Ohio law.

Wider pressure on Flock technology

In September, five Indianapolis police officers were charged with misusing Flock cameras, with one officer allegedly looking up his ex-wife's car location over nine hundred fifty times.