Republic file photo A Flock Safety license plate camera is shown in a neighborhood setting.
The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department has extended its contract with surveillance cameras which read license plates on county roadways.
The $23,000 contract with Georgia-based Flock Safety Co. has been extended through June 16, 2027. While Flock has increased its annual fee by $5 per camera, Capt. Chris Roberts of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department says a five-year commitment locks fees into place, saving an estimated $25,000.
With the use of artificial intelligence, the Flock cameras can capture still images of every vehicle that comes into view. The images are uploaded to a cloud server, and police are alerted when the cameras catch vehicles flagged for suspected involvement in a crime. The cameras are configured to alert police to vehicles that have been reported stolen or are associated with a missing person, according to the website.
Besides the license plate number and the state where the plate was issued, information collected within seconds by Flock cameras includes the vehicle color, make, model, roof racks and even bumper stickers, the website states. The date and time of the image is recorded, as well as how many times the vehicle has passed by the cameras over the past month.
Nationally, the cameras prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to issue a statement that “police do not need records of every person’s coming and goings, including trips to doctor’s offices, religious institutions and political gatherings.”
The ACLU maintains Flock’s technology has the potential to be abused.
But Roberts said there is a system of checks and balances in place to assure that type of misuse does not happen.
When the sheriff’s department first began testing four flock cameras two years ago, County Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz was expressing concerns that deputies might use the images to catch speeders, expired plates or smaller incidents. Such a use would make local residents feel they are always under surveillance, Kleinhenz said.
In response, Roberts assured the commissioners his department will only use a Flock plate number if a vehicle has been reported stolen, the owner is wanted on a criminal warrant, or if the car or truck is believed to be involved in a Silver or Amber alert.
The cameras also do not capture images of the vehicle’s occupants, Roberts said. All data and photos are permanently deleted after 30 days if they don’t become part of an investigation, he added.
And since these systems are not considered infallible, officers don’t take alerts at face value and conduct an investigation to verify the information before taking action, Roberts said in an earlier interview.
Kleinhenz said he has been keeping an eye on the sheriff’s department for the past few years to ensure nobody has been improperly using the equipment.
“I’ll give the sheriff’s department credit,” the commissioner said. “They did what they said they were going to do with this. And these cameras have helped us on a few incidents that are serious and life-threatening.”
To date, the cameras have given local officers information that have enabled them to make quite a few drug arrests, recover stolen vehicles and apprehend those being sought on arrest warrants, Roberts said.
There are now 19 Flock cameras located along highways and thoroughfares throughout Bartholomew County. Ten are utilized by the Columbus Police Department, while nine are overseen by the sheriff’s department. All funds used to pay for the cameras comes from drug seizure money.
It has been publicly acknowledged that Flock cameras are at most of the major entrances into Columbus. However, local law enforcement officials are hesitant to list other locations, in order to avoid vandalism.
“We don’t publicize all the information that we gain from Flock, but it has been very significant in some very important cases,” Roberts said.
Flock Safety claims its cameras operate in more than 1,500 U.S. cities.
