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A couple days before the Kosciusko County Council will discuss Flock cameras at their meeting, local lawyer Travis McConnell questioned the County Commissioners about a Flock Safety Fund ordinance that was approved in 2023.
Commissioners Bob Conley and Cary Groninger were serving as commissioners then with Brad Jackson, but current Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell - who eventually replaced Jackson - was on the County Council at that time.
In his comments Tuesday, McConnell said, “I’m just here to talk about the ordinance related to the Flock Safety Fund that was created. It’s ordinance 23-04-25-001. Specifically, there’s a line in here in Section 3 that states expenditures from this fund shall be made without appropriation.”
He said an appropriation is something that is typically reserved to the county council, not commissioners. The ordinance was enacted by the commissioners and McConnell said he didn’t see any approval done by the council.
“And I’m wandering, since Indiana code 36-2-5-2b requires appropriation to be done by the council, absent a statute that provides an exception, if you can tell me what the exception is, what statute allows you to take appropriation away from the county council,” McConnell said.
County attorney Ed Ormsby said that was the first time he had heard of it. He said he could take a look at the ordinance that McConnell explained. “But, if we had advanced notice, maybe we could answer the question,” he stated.
According to an online Times-Union story dated April 25, 2023, titled “Commissioners Approve Donation Account For Law Enforcement Cameras,” Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan Hampton presented the commissioners with a proposed ordinance for a new donation account. The Kosciusko County Flock Group donation account is for the Flock cameras the county owns.
“All the law enforcement agencies in Kosciusko County use these Flock cameras for investigation purposes. This also entitles us to access to other Flock cameras throughout the country, wherever the other Flock cameras are located,” Hampton said at the Aug. 25, 2023, meeting. “So, this donation account is going to be used for the purpose of having law enforcement agencies contribute to the Flock Group financial support, so it can offset the costs.”
Conley asked if it was a budgeted item or how was it funded.
“The prosecutor’s office has a budgeted item for Flock. Each law enforcement agency has a budgeted item for Flock. It’s just a matter of putting it all together in one account,” Hampton said then.
The ordinance was approved 3-0.
Flock cameras have become a topic of discussion nationally as people are concerned about how the cameras may or might violate their Fourth Amendment rights, while law enforcement sees them as a valuable tool that can help solve crimes such as murder, kidnappings, theft and more.
The county council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10 in the old courtroom of the county courthouse.
