By Patricia Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The city of Erlanger is contemplating buying Flock Safety Cameras for use in the city.
Erlanger Assistant CAO Mark Collier said some officers came to him and suggested that the city get the cameras to help them fight crime and keep people safe.
“We are right at the beginning, though,” Collier said. “Other cities have them, but we are not there yet. We have talked to council members about the cameras, but we do not have the money allocated in this new budget for them, so we won’t get them this year.”
The city of Florence is a little ahead of Erlanger in acquiring the cameras.
“The camera is basically a license reader,” said Florence Captain Eric Bowles, Administrative Commander. “We have had license readers on two of our cruisers for awhile. Those were organized by the Vigilant company through the Cincinnati police force. The idea is basically the same, although that is a regional program and the Flock cameras are a national program.”
Flock Safety Cameras are basically ALPR, or Automated License Plate Readers, which means the camera has the ability to focus in on a license plate and recognize the numbers and letters. Since many of the Northern Kentucky cities are adjacent to the I-75 corridor, which is a known pipeline, running from Michigan to Florida, for drugs and crime, catching criminals requires all the tools the police have in their toolbox.
The CEO and Co-founder is Garrett Langley, who had a vision to eliminate neighborhood crime. He wanted a system that could help police find burglars and criminals who prey on regular people and get them off the streets.
Flock cameras can capture license plates, they can take note of the color and type of a vehicle, and they can time stamp the capture, and record the location of the image.
When a Flock camera captures the images, the data is temporarily stored on the device until uploaded to the cloud. The information is only kept for 30 days by default, and is then wiped from the cloud. Users, such as the police department, own 100 percent of the data. The data is never shared or sold.
Captain Bowles said that Hamilton County has several of the cameras installed, but Cincinnati doesn’t have any. He also said that Lexington has about 100 cameras, and Georgetown has some. There was an incident in Georgetown recently where a deputy was shot, and the assailant traveled to Lexington where he was apprehended thanks to a Flock camera.
Bowles recounted another instance where a person had gone missing out west, and her son thought she had come to Florence, but thanks to the software the city has with their test Flock cameras, police were able to determine that she was, in fact, still out west, and they were able to help track her whereabouts.
“We had two test Flock cameras, which were not permanently installed, to see if we liked what they had to offer,” Bowles said. “We have commissioned 10 cameras, but we haven’t gotten them installed yet. When our officers use the camera, we have to put in the case number that we are putting in the query for — we can’t just look up a license for no reason.”
The cameras are not cheap. They cost about $3,000 per camera per year. There is an extra charge for installation, but Captain Bowles says they install these cameras all the time, it is their job and they are good at it.
“Traditionally these cameras are placed at traffic choke points,” Bowles explained. “Maybe at the ramp where people exit the expressway in the city. Also, at the retail areas, such as Mall Road or Houston Road. We will put them at high volume areas, no parks yet. I will say, ten cameras will be gone quickly in a city our size.”
Bowles stipulated that these cameras can’t aid in writing tickets. He said this is not legal in Kentucky, whereas it is allowed in Ohio. The cameras also can’t log speed.
“In some cases, the information provided by the cameras is part of a case of evidence, it isn’t something that can stand alone, usually,” he said. “It’s kind of like a fingerprint—part of a larger case of evidence.”
The cameras are solar powered, so they aren’t a part of anyone’s electricity, and they sit high up on a pole, generally out of the reach of vandals.
Not everyone likes the cameras. There is some concern about privacy, and the effects on civil liberties. The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that automated license plate readers like the Flock camera create more problems than they solve, and other organizations have concerns that these cameras can cause more harm, especially to minorities. The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the use of the cameras, but think they could be useful in some cases, such as AMBER alerts, helping to find stolen cars, or helping with toll collections. It objects to governmental tracking.
Investors in the company say the digital evidence can be shared by different law enforcement agencies for short periods of time, and they contend that the more devices that are out there, the more evidence they can gather to solve crimes.
The efficacy of the cameras has been proven enough for many cities to invest in them. Currently there are twelve hundred departments across the nation who have them.
Florence believes they have made the right decision, and Erlanger is obviously weighing the good and the bad of the initiative. Assistant CAO Collier said although they haven’t committed money to the project yet, he has sat in on several question and answer sessions with council members, and thinks the general feeling is positive.
Captain Bowles is of the opinion that it is new technology that will soon be in every city.
“They are new to Northern Kentucky this year, so most departments are evaluating them to help solve crimes.”
He said other NKY communities were looking into them.