Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson and the state's largest police union want lawmakers to make misusing Flock camera data a felony.

Wilson and Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio President Jay McDonald both called for new penalties and regulations in interviews first reported by WEWS on Monday, Sept. 21. The push comes one week after Hilliard City Council voted 6-0 to pause the city's own Flock program.

No state law penalizes the misuse. Wilson compared the gap to existing rules for the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, known as OH-LEG, where misuse is already a fifth-degree felony. Flock data misuse should carry at least a fifth-degree felony and potentially a fourth-degree felony, Wilson told 10TV in a Sept. 16 interview.

"A person who misuses this should never ever be able to wear a badge again … They violated the trust, they violated civil liberties, and they should never be put in a position of trust or responsibility with respect to public safety again," Wilson said.

Wilson also called on every agency using Flock cameras to adopt strict use policies and conduct ongoing audits. Data not tied to active cases should be deleted within 10 to 30 days, he said.

State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, has proposed a bill that would require outside agencies to obtain a warrant before accessing Flock data. The bill would also ban camera placement near places of worship and gun stores, limit data retention to 10 days and prohibit sharing data with third parties, according to a Cutrona announcement on the Ohio Senate website. Personal use of Flock data would be a fourth-degree felony under the proposal.

McDonald said the FOP supports regulation but opposes eliminating the cameras. He noted that state law already penalizes misuse of other law enforcement databases, and license plate readers should be added to that framework. He and other officials are meeting to discuss best practices and whether to issue guidance to all agencies, he said.

Hilliard Council paused the city's 15-camera Flock program on Sept. 14, citing concerns about third-party access to data collected and stored by Flock Safety, a private company. Council President Emily Cole said there is no timeline for the pause, according to the Hilliard Beacon. Council members said the decision was not based on concerns about Hilliard officer misuse.

Five of Hilliard's Flock cameras were vandalized, according to public records obtained by 10TV. Two Reynoldsburg police officers resigned in August after an internal audit found they used the readers to track personal acquaintances. Officers in Columbus and a Franklin County Sheriff's Office deputy are also under investigation for alleged misuse, 10TV reported.

Ohio has no statewide rules on how long police may keep license plate reader data or what officers must do before searching it, according to a cleveland.com review published Sept. 9. Auditing requirements are also absent. A separate bill, House Bill 725, which would restrict commercial use of the data, remained in the House Public Safety Committee as of that date.

Lawmakers hope to pass Flock regulations by the end of the year, the Ohio Capital Journal reported. No committee hearing date has been announced for Cutrona's bill.