At their meeting last week, Centralia City Council members received an update from Chief Stacy Denham of the Centralia Police Department regarding the installation of Flock Safety cameras.
Many of the cameras from Flock Safety are already operational. The remainder, according to Denham, ought to be installed by the end of the week. The police chief claimed that the cameras have already assisted in apprehending a drug dealer who recently sold fentanyl-laced cocaine to a resident of Centralia.
“We were able to identify the name of the individual that sold him the cocaine the night before that sent him to Harborview (Medical Center),” Denham said. “Since we now know who the vehicle’s registered owner is, we decided to enter the Idaho license plate number into our Flock Safety system. Because we are connected to Tukwila’s system and other agencies that use Flock Safety, we immediately received a hit from that morning in which a person drove past a Flock Safety camera.”
Without the aid of the cameras, according to Denham, it is doubtful that the police would have been able to locate the suspect.
Using automated license plate recognition technology, Flock Safety is a security firm with headquarters in Atlanta.
By providing departments with license plate numbers and detailed descriptions of the vehicles, including their make, model, and color, the cameras are intended to give law enforcement the leads they need to begin investigations.
Although Flock Safety cameras can still track suspicious vehicles using only visual descriptions, they are not entirely dependent on license plate numbers.
Denham explained that is particularly helpful when they look for shoplifting suspects who frequently take off their license plates before entering a store to steal and then put them back on at a different location afterward.
With the increase in shoplifting cases Centralia has seen, Denham hopes the Flock Safety cameras will help the department. He noted the Yakima Police Department has found the cameras also help officers track down stolen vehicles faster.
“That’s the one thing that Yakima PD discovered, their recovery of stolen vehicles went straight through the roof,” Denham said.
Business owners can pay Flock Safety to install cameras near their establishments in addition to the ones the city is testing, according to Denham. He stated that the only agency with access to the surveillance will be the Centralia Police Department.
After the two-month trial period, if the City of Centralia chooses to keep the cameras, the price per camera with software will be $2,500.
Visit https://transparency.flocksafety.com/centralia-pd-wa to learn more about the Flock Safety system used by the Centralia Police Department.
“When we look back, had we had these cameras over the past several months before they actually got installed, they would’ve helped us on two murders, countless thefts, multiple hit-and-runs and most recently, a stalking situation,” Denham said.
Also Read: Can Security Cameras See Inside Cars?
Source: chronline
