A Columbus police officer used the department's network of Flock license-plate cameras to dig up evidence in a car crash involving his own personal vehicle, and a city oversight board has now determined the search broke internal policy. Officer Joseph Houseberg, who joined the Columbus Division of Police in 2008, ran the search over Thanksgiving weekend after a Blacklick man's car struck the back of his vehicle on Interstate 270 South in Gahanna. Houseberg has said he was trying to preserve evidence for another department's investigators; a civilian review board says the query itself was the problem, regardless of his intent.
The crash happened around 1:40 p.m. on Nov. 24, 2025, according to the Columbus Dispatch, as Houseberg drove to Columbus police headquarters in his own car. A 31-year-old Blacklick man changed lanes behind him and hit the back of Houseberg's vehicle with the front driver's side of his own car. A Gahanna police officer who responded to the scene later added a supplement to the crash report marking the Blacklick man at fault, citing the evidence at the scene and inconsistencies in his account.
A Thanksgiving Search Amid Conflicting Crash Accounts
Three days later, on Nov. 27, 2025, Houseberg searched Flock camera data for the other driver's vehicle during a Thanksgiving overtime shift, the newspaper's report states. The other driver had claimed a scuff on his car occurred during the crash, but Houseberg's search turned up a photo showing the mark existed more than a week earlier, and he has said it didn't look fresh because he was able to wipe dirt from it. He has said he was investigating whether the other driver made false statements to an insurance company — conduct that can constitute a felony — after State Farm told him on Nov. 26 that the man claimed to have passed out or suffered a medical emergency behind the wheel.
Houseberg reported the Flock photo to the Gahanna officer investigating the crash, and he has said the search was meant to preserve evidence of the vehicle's preexisting damage before it fell outside the division's 30-day retention window, which the city has documented in city records. He told investigators he ran the query himself because the Gahanna officer was unavailable and it was unclear when he would return. The Gahanna officer has said the search would have violated his own department's policy and reported it up his chain of command, and a Gahanna lieutenant emailed Columbus police's internal affairs bureau on Dec. 3, 2025.
From 'Unfounded' to a Confirmed Policy Violation
Columbus's Department of the Inspector General opened an investigation into Houseberg's Flock use and closed the case on Feb. 27, 2026, marking the complaint unfounded. Columbus police spokesperson Anthony Caldwell has said the finding rested on the fact that Houseberg hadn't shared his search results with anyone unauthorized, since the department's computer systems and mobile device policy bars sharing Flock data with non-law-enforcement agencies or unauthorized people. Caldwell has also said any use of Flock data must tie back to an ongoing investigation or an officer's official duties.
The Columbus Civilian Police Review Board disagreed when it discussed the case on April 7, 2026, with members saying the search violated the policy's intent even if the results were shared appropriately. The board, created after Columbus voters approved the Issue 2 charter amendment in November 2020, according to WCBE, sent the case back to the inspector general for another look. Two days later, the inspector general's revised report reversed course and found that Houseberg's Flock search did in fact violate division policy.
City Attorney: Houseberg Acted as a Private Citizen
The Columbus City Attorney's Office has said Houseberg was acting as a private citizen, not in his role as an officer, when he searched Flock — noting the crash happened outside Columbus police jurisdiction and that he was never assigned to investigate it, nor would he have been assigned to investigate his own crash. The office has characterized the search as personal use of a camera system meant to be reserved for law-enforcement purposes. Houseberg stood to benefit financially if the other driver was found at fault for the crash.
Columbus police say their chain of command is now reviewing the inspector general's findings to decide whether and how to discipline Houseberg. Department spokesperson Nicole Jaros has said appropriate corrective action will be taken if the allegations are sustained. It remains unclear what specific discipline, if any, Houseberg could face.
A National Pattern of Camera Misuse
The case unfolds amid a national reckoning over Flock misuse inside police departments. An August investigation by The Washington Post found that at least 50 law enforcement officers across the country have been charged or accused of misusing license-plate reader systems, with 46 of those cases tied specifically to Flock Safety's database. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2913.04, knowingly accessing or sharing information from state law-enforcement databases beyond what's officially authorized is classified as a fifth-degree felony, according to FindLaw. That's a separate legal exposure from the insurance-fraud question Houseberg says he was investigating in the first place.
Locally, the Columbus Division of Police operates 38 Flock cameras under a $228,000 agreement that took effect in late December 2024 and runs through December 2026, according to WOSU Public Media. A separate city audit found more than 15,000 Columbus Flock searches potentially tied to immigration enforcement, the newspaper's report notes. On July 24, the division added a dedicated Flock page to its online transparency portal, publishing camera activity, search totals and written data policies, per a Columbus Division of Police announcement.
Ohio's Broader Flock Backlash
In June, Columbus police disabled nationwide Flock lookups and stopped sharing data directly with outside agencies operating under federal 287(g) agreements, according to Matter News. Other Ohio communities have pushed further: Dayton temporarily covered its 72 Flock cameras with plastic bags during an internal review, and Kent's council voted to preemptively ban Flock contracts altogether, the outlet reports. Ohio State University, meanwhile, approved a $378,000, two-year contract extension with Flock Safety on July 1 to keep 63 license-plate readers running on and around its Columbus campus through mid-2028, according to Signal Statewide.
Columbus Council to Revisit Flock Policy
Columbus City Councilmember Emmanuel Remy has scheduled a public hearing on Flock surveillance cameras for Aug. 10 to address privacy concerns and consider policy revisions following the internal audit reviews, according to WOSU Public Media. Hoodline previously reported on Columbus's fight to keep Flock cameras amid fears the network could aid federal immigration enforcement. It remains unclear whether the council will adopt explicit rules barring officers from using Flock to investigate their own cases or personal disputes.
