Mason police credited Flock license plate readers with two arrests this summer, and now Ohio's top law enforcement officer wants to make misusing those cameras a felony.

Attorney General Andy Wilson, a former Clark County prosecutor, issued a statement Wednesday, Sept. 16, urging the General Assembly to criminalize misuse of the automated readers. He proposed using the same standard Ohio applies to unauthorized access of the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, or OHLEG. That offense is a fifth-degree felony, and convicted officers must surrender their credentials.

The cameras played a direct role in Mason this summer. On July 22, a shooting suspect at Carter Lumber on Reading Road was apprehended within 30 minutes of the attack. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said at the suspect's Aug. 31 indictment hearing that investigators were "getting hits on Flock cameras within 10 minutes of when this happened."

In a June 8 case, the cameras tracked a man from a Culver's drive-thru on Tylersville Road to Kings Island, where officers pulled him off a ride and arrested him minutes after he allegedly threatened a juvenile employee with a gun, according to Fox 19.

Wilson acknowledged in his statement that some officers have misused the technology but said agencies themselves identified those problems through internal audits. He called Flock one of the most valuable tools in law enforcement and said it has helped solve thousands of Ohio cases, according to the Dayton Daily News.

His statement arrived the same day Columbus Mayor Andy Ginther announced that city would suspend its Flock cameras over what Ginther called a "deeply troubling" misuse case, the Dayton Daily News reported. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office shut down all 75 of its Flock cameras on Sept. 3. Dayton previously suspended its readers after disclosing that outside agencies accessed camera data for immigration-related searches.

Several Republican state lawmakers are drafting bills that could add new restrictions. State Rep. Levi Dean, R-Xenia, wants police to obtain a warrant before accessing location data. State Reps. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., and Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., are working on a separate bill that would set stricter penalties for data abuse. Their proposal would also limit how long data is stored and restrict who can access it, the Dayton Daily News reported.

No bill numbers have been assigned. No committee hearings are scheduled.

Flock Safety, the company behind the cameras, says its technology is used by more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. In response to the backlash, the company reduced its default data retention period from 30 days to seven and made misuse-detection software mandatory for all clients, WLWT reported.

Mason Police Department has not publicly commented on Wilson's felony-penalty proposal.