Every day Columbus keeps its Flock Safety license plate reader cameras running is another day a family could be torn apart — not because of a crime, but because of where someone was born.

Flock Safety cameras scan every passing vehicle and store data including the license plate number, make, model, and color. Columbus police can access that data — and so can federal agencies like ICE. The problem is that the filters meant to block immigration enforcement can be bypassed. As Columbus City Council member Melissa Green warned at a June 2 council meeting, agents don't have to declare they're running an immigration search. They can simply write "wanted person," and the filter fails. Columbus police acknowledged this would be "difficult to assess" from their end.

Two Ohio cities have already seen enough. Dayton suspended its use of Flock cameras after reporting that data was being used for immigration enforcement. Cleveland is considering doing the same. Columbus — Ohio's largest city — is still waiting.

Council member Emmanuel Remy has called for a public hearing and an audit. But an audit takes time, and as Council member Green said at the June 2 meeting: "Every day that we are waiting is another day that somebody could be taken away from their family unjustly."

We're urging the Columbus City Council to immediately suspend the city's $228,000 contract with Flock Safety until legally binding protections are in place — not voluntary software filters that a federal agency can work around with a few keystrokes.

Columbus can act now. Please sign and call on the Columbus City Council — including Council members Emmanuel Remy, Melissa Green, and Lourdes Barroso de Padilla — to suspend Flock Safety camera access without delay.