Flock Safety Cameras: A Proven Investigative Tool for Hebron

Technology continues to change the way law enforcement investigates crime, locates missing persons, and responds to incidents. For the Hebron Police Department, one of the tools that has proven particularly valuable is the Village’s network of Flock Safety cameras.

Since May 2023, the Department has documented 27 cases³ in which Flock Safety technology directly contributed to a successful investigative or public-safety outcome. Those successes range from identifying vehicles involved in thefts and burglaries to apprehending violent offenders and locating endangered missing persons.

The Hebron Police Department encourages everyone to visit our Flock Transparency Portal by clicking here.

What Do Flock Cameras Do?

The Village utilizes both automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and Live View cameras. ALPRs capture vehicle information, allowing officers to search by license plate, vehicle description, location, and time to develop investigative leads. Live View cameras record video that can help identify vehicles, establish direction of travel, and provide additional context surrounding an incident.

This can be particularly valuable when officers begin an investigation with limited information. A witness may not have a license plate but may remember that a suspect left in a particular color or type of vehicle. Rather than manually reviewing hours of conventional video, investigators can use available vehicle information to help narrow the search and develop potential leads.

The system can also provide real-time alerts when a vehicle associated with certain law-enforcement records, such as a stolen vehicle or missing person, passes a camera.

For a small police department, this capability can serve as a significant investigative force multiplier.

27 Documented Successes—and Counting³

From May 2023 through August 7, 2026, Hebron Police documented 27 successful uses of Flock Safety technology. Of those cases, 24 involved ALPR technology and three involved live camera access.

The cases have included:

• Robberies and attempted robberies
• Burglary and felony breaking and entering
• Felony domestic violence
• Weapons-related offenses
• Business and residential thefts
• Receiving stolen property and drug offenses
• Hit-skip crashes, including a fatal crash
• Impersonating a police officer
• Property damage
• Suspicious-activity and possible gunfire complaints
• Missing and endangered persons

The technology has helped officers identify suspect vehicles and individuals, corroborate evidence, recover stolen property, locate wanted persons, assist neighboring law enforcement agencies, and develop probable cause or other information supporting arrests and criminal charges.

In several investigations, the information provided by the cameras was instrumental in moving a case forward when officers otherwise had very limited information about the vehicle or person involved.

More Than Arrests: Locating Missing and Endangered People

One of the most important benefits of the technology has nothing to do with making arrests.

Five documented cases involved locating missing or endangered persons.

Among them was an elderly Alzheimer’s patient who went missing on Christmas Day. His vehicle was detected by a Flock camera in Hebron after he was reported missing by Columbus Police, and he was ultimately located safely.

In another case, officers were notified of a Flock alert involving an endangered elderly man reported missing from the Dayton area. Officers subsequently located him on U.S. 40.

Other cases involved missing persons from neighboring communities whose vehicles were detected in or near Hebron, providing officers with information that helped locate them.

These local results mirror one of the broader public-safety applications of ALPR technology. Flock reported that agencies responding to its 2025 impact survey used its technology in connection with locating more than 10,000 missing persons nationwide.¹

Helping Other Agencies—and Helping Rule People Out

Crime and emergencies do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. Several of Hebron’s documented successes involved assisting other law enforcement agencies.

Flock information has helped Hebron officers locate vehicles or individuals sought by agencies including Columbus, Dayton, Heath, Perry County, and other neighboring jurisdictions. In other cases, information developed in Hebron has been forwarded to the agency investigating the original crime.

The technology can also help investigators determine what did not happen.

For example, officers investigating a complaint of possible gunshots used ALPR information to identify and locate a vehicle matching the description provided. Follow-up investigation helped establish that a firearm had not been discharged.

Flock cameras have similarly been used to help establish that certain individuals or vehicles were not involved in incidents. Those instances are not included among the Department’s 27 documented successes.

That distinction is important. An investigative tool is valuable not only when it points officers toward a suspect, but also when objective information helps officers eliminate someone from suspicion or determine that the available evidence does not support an allegation.

One Tool Among Many

Flock Safety technology does not solve cases by itself.

Officers use a myriad of investigative resources—including witness interviews, physical evidence, conventional video, records, databases, information from other law enforcement agencies, and traditional police work—to investigate crimes and locate people.

Likewise, not every Flock search results in a positive identification, arrest, criminal charge, or enforcement action. A camera observation is a piece of information that must be evaluated within the context of the investigation.

The 27 cases documented by the Department represent instances in which Flock technology made a significant and identifiable contribution to the outcome. They should not be interpreted as every occasion on which the system was used or provided investigative value.

A Safer Village

The increased use of this technology has also coincided with a marked decline in criminal activity within the Village limits since the cameras were installed in 2023.² Department crime statistics show a noticeable reduction in reported criminal activity during the years following deployment of the Flock Safety system.

While no single technology or policing strategy can be credited for a reduction in crime—and many factors influence crime trends—the decline is encouraging. Flock cameras are one component of a broader approach that includes proactive patrol, traditional investigations, community partnerships, information sharing with neighboring agencies, and the work of officers who know the community they serve.

The cameras also provide something increasingly important to would-be offenders: accountability. Vehicles traveling into and through Hebron may leave behind objective investigative information that officers can use when a crime occurs. The Department’s 27 documented successes demonstrate that this capability is more than theoretical; it has repeatedly helped officers identify suspects and vehicles, make arrests, develop criminal charges, and solve cases.

The combination of a measurable decline in criminal activity and a growing record of successful investigations provides an encouraging indication that the Village’s investment in modern public-safety technology is contributing to a broader strategy of making Hebron a less attractive place to commit crime.

Why It Matters for Hebron

Hebron is a small community, but its location creates unique policing challenges. Major roadways bring thousands of vehicles through the Village and connect Hebron with communities throughout central Ohio. A person who commits a crime here may be outside the Village within minutes, while someone wanted by another jurisdiction may just as quickly travel into Hebron.

Technology cannot replace good police work, but it can give officers better information with which to do that work.

In Hebron, that has meant identifying vehicles from limited descriptions, developing suspects in serious crimes, apprehending wanted individuals, recovering stolen property, providing evidence in a fatal hit-skip investigation, assisting neighboring agencies, and—most importantly—helping bring missing and endangered people home safely.

Twenty-seven documented successes represent 27 occasions when officers had information available to them that helped provide an answer, advance an investigation, assist another agency, or protect someone in need.

For the Hebron Police Department, that is the value of Flock Safety technology: another tool that helps our officers turn limited information into actionable evidence making Hebron a safe and welcoming place to live, work, and visit.

References:

¹ – How Effective Is Flock? 2025 Impact Census Results from 700 Law Enforcement Agencies  https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/how-effective-is-flock

² – Graphs “Total Reported Offenses” and “Violent Crime Trend”

³ – Hebron PD Flock Success.pdf