Indiana police departments, municipalities, neighborhoods and schools are flocking to a new crime-fighting technology like ducks to an inviting pond.
Purdue University became the most recent Indiana organization to sign a deal with Flock Safety to have its solar-powered license plate reading devices installed on its West Lafayette campus. The Purdue University Police Department joins the police departments of Lafayette and West Lafayette in using the system.
The Atlanta-based company now has nearly 150 customers in Indiana, which has fast become one of its hottest markets in the nation.
In addition to Purdue and its surrounding communities, Indianapolis, Plainfield, Franklin and Columbus are among the municipalities using Flock. The Pickwick Commons neighborhood on the northside of Indianapolis and Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp. in Johnson County are two more specific groups that have installed the devices.
“We started our schools initiative this year, and Indiana is one of the only states that has a major university and large K-12 school using our system,” says Holly Beilin, Flock head of public relations. “We expect the number of schools using our technology to grow rapidly. In this day and age, school safety is very critical.”
The license plate reading devices are so appealing because they can make a real difference.
“What we tend to see is as soon as Flock cameras go up, police immediately solve more crimes. Apprehensions, recoveries from amber alerts and stolen vehicle recoveries go up. And then crime rates go down,” Beilin says. “They’re an incredible deterrent. The communities really feel that.
“Because of this, we have strong word-of-mouth marketing,” she adds. “City officials, police officers and community leaders talk to one another and they spread the word that this technology works. We’re growing very quickly in Indiana.”
Chad Pryce, Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp. police chief, said the school district deployed four of the license plate reading cameras for about $10,000.
“They allow our police department to be proactive with safety,” Pryce says. “Instead of waiting for an incident to possibly occur, they will, in real-time, be alerted to any suspicious activity or persons that might present a safety issue.”
Beilin says the system is becoming popular with schools and universities because they have a limited number of access and exit roads and can essentially set up a “virtual gate” with the system.
It’s difficult to comb through Indiana police reports without stumbling across a mention of Flock these days.
For instance, a person was arrested May 25 after Columbus police officers located and recovered a stolen vehicle after receiving a notification from one of the city’s Flock cameras. At approximately 8:30 p.m., CPD officers located an orange passenger car in the 1100 of Pearl Street that was reportedly stolen from Seymour. Prior to locating the vehicle, the officers received a notification regarding the vehicle being in the area from a Flock camera.
Flock too has seen substantial growth in other Midwest markets, including Illinois and Michigan, Beilin states.
As license plate readers have grown in popularity as a crime-fighting tool in recent years, some concerns have surfaced about the new technology’s impact on privacy issues. The American Civil Liberties Union released a report on license plate readers, looking at how the technology is building a form of mass surveillance never seen before in the U.S. Flock officials say they’ve taken steps to limit surveillance and maintaining data on ordinary citizens.
Flock was founded in 2017 by two engineers looking to pioneer a less expensive and cumbersome license plate reading system. It offers solar-powered readers that require no wiring and transmits data through the cloud using cell phone-like technology. The company typically leases the cameras – which are positioned often on poles about 14 feet high – for $2,500 each per year, which includes maintenance and software updates. While the data is owned by the customer, Flock handles data storage and deletes all data after 30 days.
“We’re not looking to keep superfluous data on ordinary citizens for years on end,” Beilin says. “We’re committed to protecting people’s privacy.”
That’s why the Flock system uses still photos – not video – and no facial recognition software. Beilin explains the Flock inventors wanted to help fight crime without unnecessarily intruding on the lives of or surveilling innocent citizens.
The system is connected to local and national crime databases, and each time the license plate of a known offender, wanted criminal or a stolen vehicle is detected, local authorities are notified.
“The International Association of Chiefs of Police estimates 70% of crimes are committed with a vehicle,” Beilin emphasizes. “When you’re talking to (police) detectives, one of the most actionable leads is a license plate. A license plate is an immediate and strong lead … that’s why this tech is so incredibly effective.”
