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The city of Dayton recently suspended its use of fixed-point automatic license plate readers after disclosing camera data was being accessed by outside agencies for immigration-related searches.

The Dayton Daily News requested ALPR audit records from many local agencies and received data from police departments in Kettering, Miami Twp. and Tipp City. Miamisburg and Springboro police also provided limited information.

The records show that law enforcement agencies across Ohio and the United States conduct thousands of searches of local police data every single day. In January alone, hundreds of local searches listed “immigration” as a search reason.

The Dayton Police Department, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and other regional police departments denied Dayton Daily News requests, made under Ohio public records law, that seek to obtain audit information showing how those agencies are sharing Flock ALPR data. Officials say the records are confidential and exempt from public records law. This news outlet is currently disputing those assertions.

According to ALPR audit data obtained by our reporter, Cleveland police completed three network searches of Tipp City’s license plate reader data in late March related to a “No Kings Protest” that thousands of people attended to protest the Trump administration. Missouri police also searched Tipp City police’s ALPR network and many other databases twice for “protest” reasons.

Here are the three stories we published today as part of our investigation, these stories are free to all users with no paywall.

• Area police share license plate reader data for immigration, unstated reasons, records show: https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/area-police-share-license-plate-reader-data-for-immigration-unstated-reasons-records-show/article_45511d7d-c316-5d41-9391-a54d196aa2b1.html
• How Kettering, other area police departments share license plate reader data: https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/how-kettering-other-area-police-departments-share-license-plate-reader-data/article_58ed2542-c5cc-5262-8762-f98053670241.html
• Privacy advocates: Legislation, guardrails needed for police license plate readers: https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/privacy-advocates-legislation-guardrails-needed-for-police-license-plate-readers/article_195c0483-28f0-5494-b584-85345bbbeddd.html

About a year ago, following a Dayton Daily News investigation revealing details about the federal raid at Fuyao North America — and raising questions about who knew what and when — WHIO-TV reached out to our newsroom.

Their investigative team had stumbled upon something interesting. Their sister station, WSB-TV in Atlanta was covering another federal raid at a Chinese-owned company in Georgia. And they learned that a property housing people who were allegedly trafficked was owned by a person in the Dayton area.

Dayton Daily News lead business reporter Thomas Gnau and investigations editor Josh Sweigart teamed up with the News Center 7 I-Team’s lead investigative reporter John Bedell to pursue the story.

Over the following months, we used business filings, court records and other sources to discover not only ties between the Wellmade operation and the Dayton area, but also another Dayton-area company facing federal scrutiny. We talked to experts about the situation and what could be done, and gave the companies an opportunity to comment.

These stories are available for all users to read.

Chinese companies with Dayton ties face federal scrutiny

Incentives fueled Fuyao: Did company live up to the deal?

Want to know more about the timeline of events?