The Bellefontaine Police Department is taking an active role in preventing and solving crime by installing eight Flock Safety Automated License Plate Reading cameras at locations along major city thoroughfares.
“This technology will help keep our community safer,” Chief Brandon Standley said. “Without a doubt, this system will provide the support our patrol officers need on a daily basis.
“We’re excited to launch this soon and begin utilizing it. We can’t wait to get started.”
Crews began installing the equipment Friday and the system should be up and running by the end of April.
Chief Standley said some of the cameras will be powered by solar panels while others will need to be connected to electrical sources.
Other Ohio departments, particularly in the Columbus metropolitan area, are using the system, with one community’s police department recovering 17 vehicles in a month, the chief said.
Bellefontaine will pay $2,500 per unit per year for the system, he said. Depending on results, more cameras could be added in the future, he added.
Flock Safety ALPR cameras help law enforcement investigate crime by providing objective evidence that can be transformed into actionable leads. The cameras capture license plates and vehicle characteristics, not people or faces.
But that information can help officers track vehicles linked to shoplifting incidents, burglaries, robberies, sexual assaults and murder.
The ALPR network delivers real-time alerts to law enforcement when a stolen or wanted vehicle has passed a camera.
It can also alert officers if a vehicle associated with a missing person in an AMBER or Silver Alert is detected.
When investigating a crime, Flock Safety cameras detect and decode objective leads for law enforcement using trademarked Vehicle Fingerprint technology, which identifies the make, vehicle type, color, license plate (full, partial, or missing), license plate state, and unique vehicle features like roof rack, trailer hitch, tinted windows and more.
Flock Safety cameras are not used for traffic enforcement and do not include facial recognition capabilities. The data is never sold or shared with third parties and every search conducted by the system requires an auditable search justification. The footage is securely stored in the cloud and automatically deleted every 30 days, by default.
Flock Safety is the first public safety operating system that powers 1,500 cities to capture objective evidence, make it actionable with machine learning, and deliver it directly into the hands that stop crime. Flock Safety cameras have been shown to reduce crime by up to 70 percent.
Visit www.flocksafety.com for more information.
