Mahoning is Flocked

Mahoning has a couple cameras watching its Lowe's, with another near Walmart and a fourth positioned on a suspiciously quiet road.

Overview

Mahoning Township is the proud host of the busiest shopping complex in the south Carbon County area, boasting locations for major brands such as Lowe's, Walmart, and McDonald's. We can't blame them for wanting to keep the area safe with all that activity, but they need to understand that ALPR systems are not the way to go.

Right now, the Lowe's inside the township has two Flock cameras watching its parking lot. These cameras are likely installed by the Lowe's store, not the Township itself. The township does have a camera watching those who dare shop at Walmart, though, and another close by on Fredericks Grove, the quiet road that intersects Walmart's entrance. I find it rather odd to put an ALPR here; why not use that $3,000 per year to secure a place people actually go?

On July 16, I received their response via US Mail. Interestingly, the response included, "Mahoning Township does not have any intergovernmental cooperation agreements, interlocal agreements, or memorandums of understanding with an of the municipalities listed." This claim is demonstratively untrue as Lehighton provided me a copy of the license agreement. In their response to my second Right-to-Know request, they instead cited an actual exemption, one that states the record cannot be released for security reasons. Not only is Mahoning Township simultaneously claiming the record does and does not exist, they are claiming the release of such a record would jeopardize public safety or safety of the hardware even though Franklin and Lehighton released the same records without these concerns.

Mahoning Township also declined to produce documents relating to access controls, security audits, data sharing agreements, and location records. These seem pretty standard to have records of for such a powerful surveillance tool. They're essentially saying that they don't know who can access the cameras, why people are accessing the cameras, or where the cameras even are. Granted, they do state for the location records "We do not maintain any records that identify the physical installation locations. They are maintained by Flock." However, even if the records are maintained by Flock, the Township is still responsible to collect and present those records to me upon request as per the RTK.

Needless to say, I have appealed both responses and am now waiting on the Office of Open Records to make their decision.

Right to Know Requests

Select a tab to view the Right-to-Know requests sent to Mahoning Township

August 13, 2026

July 16, 2026

July 07, 2026

Requested Records

August 13, 2026

Pursuant to the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law (65 P.S. § 67.101 et seq.), I request copies of the following records, in the native electronic format (e.g., CSV or spreadsheet) in which each is generated by the Flock Safety software:

1. The Organization Audit Log reflecting all searches conducted by Mahoning Township Police Department personnel using the ALPR camera system, from the date each account was established in Flock's system (or the earliest date for which such records exist) through the date this request is processed, including all available fields (user, date/time, search parameters, reason).

2. The Network Audit Log reflecting searches of Mahoning Township's ALPR camera data conducted by personnel of other agencies through network-sharing arrangements, for the same period.

3. The "Shared Networks" report from Mahoning Township's Flock Network Sharing dashboard, showing every organization Mahoning Township's account currently shares data to or receives data from, including associated permissions and share date — including any federal agency (ICE, CBP, DHS) or out-of-state agency.

4. Mahoning Township's current Network Sharing preferences for each network it owns, including any auto-accept sharing radius, network discoverability settings (fifty miles / statewide / nationwide), and which features (Search, Hot List, VMS, Analytics) are set to auto-share.

5. Any records or screenshots showing Mahoning Township's current Flock Safety configuration settings for data retention period, live-stream access, and statewide/nationwide network-sharing participation.

Note: Flock Safety, "Guide to Flock Safety Data for Open Records Laws" (Sept. 3, 2025), states that audit logs are accessed via the agency's Flock admin dashboard "Insights" tab and downloadable as spreadsheets in 31-day increments, and that network-sharing data is downloadable via the "Download CSV" function on the Shared Networks page. The same document advises agencies that exporting these records through Flock's built-in tools "is generally not considered 'creating a new record.'" This request seeks existing, exportable records only.


Response Content

No response yet

Other Information

Date Sent August 13, 2026
Sent-to Address [email protected]