The Union County Commissioners approved an agreement with the sheriff’s office for the purchase of 10 Flock cameras like the one shown above. Billed as license plate readers, the cameras will be installed at various points around the county and allow the sheriff’s office join a camera network that includes the City of Marysville.
(Photo submitted)
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The Union County Sheriff’s Office is joining other law enforcement agencies around Ohio, including the City of Marysville, in purchasing a new camera system.
County commissioners recently approved an agreement between the sheriff’s office and the Flock Group, Inc., which will eventually see new license plate cameras installed in various locations around the county.
Chief Deputy Tom Morgan told the commissioners last week that the new system will be a helpful investigative tool.
“This is an agreement to allow the purchase of 10 Flock cameras to be installed around the county to assist us in our mission to prevent crime and also investigate criminal matters,” he said.
The system, which takes pictures of the back of each passing vehicle and digitizes the plate number, will cost $39,100 for the first year and an annual recurring total of $30,000. The agreement lists the initial term as 60 months and the renewal term as 24 months.
Aside from the camera’s use within the City of Marysville, Morgan said the cameras are being utilized throughout communities around central Ohio, which connects them with other agencies.
“By participating in this program, we’ll have access to each other’s cameras,” he added.
The cameras are used to photograph and catalog license plate information, which law enforcement can then use to identify vehicles of interest.
Before approving the agreement, Commissioner Dave Burke said he had some concerns over privacy. Morgan said while Flock owns the hardware, the county owns the data and the information is deleted after 30 days unless part of another vacation.
“I just want to make sure because I don’t want this hanging out forever and our friends and neighbors are being tracked for two years from now,” Burke said.
“I want to get the bad guys, but I don’t want to get the good guys.”
Assistant County Prosecutor Thayne Gray said it was important in reviewing the agreement that the privacy information was stated.
“’Flock deletes all footage on a rolling 30-day basis except as otherwise stated.’ I think that provides for being able to capture specific footage,” he said.
Burke said he just wanted to make sure that people know the sheriff’s office isn’t then taking the data and storing in another location.
Morgan said that wouldn’t be the case unless it was needed for a specific use such as being part of an investigation.
The agreement also underlines the point that Flock will not sell data.
“(The sheriff’s office) hereby grants to Flock a limited, non-exclusive, royalty free, irrevocable, worldwide license to use the customer data and perform all acts as may be necessary for Flock to provide the Flock services to (the sheriff’s office),” according to the agreement. “Flock does not own and shall not sell customer data. Flock shall not share or disclose customer data except as necessary to provide Flock services to (the sheriff’s office).”
The agreement also outlines that Flock anonymizes, or removes identifying information, from data sets.
“Flock shall have the right to collect, analyze and anonymize customer data and customer generated data to the extent such anonymization renders the data non-identifiable …,” according to the agreement. “Flock does not own and shall not sell anonymized data. Flock shall not share or disclose anonymized data except as necessary to provide the Flock services to (the sheriff’s office).”
Last fall, the Marysville Division of Police credited the city’s camera system with apprehending several alleged car thieves in the area within hours of the system going live.
Investigators were able to enter information about the vehicles into the system and were given an alert about where the vehicles were last seen.
According to Flock, communities using the camera system have reported crime reductions of up to 70%.