Plain City Police Department officials are hopeful that a new camera system will help ensure fewer crimes go unsolved.
“The bottom line is these cameras are like force multipliers,” said PCPD Lt. Tom Jaskiewicz.
The Plain City Police Department recently signed a contract with Flock Group, Inc. to purchase five Flock cameras to be installed in the village.
A contract with Flock indicates the cameras cost $15,000 plus a “standard implementation fee” of $650 per camera, totaling $18,250. After the first year, there is an annual recurring cost of $15,000.
The Flock camera system photographs and catalogs license plate information so law enforcement officials can use it to identify vehicles of interest.
Jaskiewicz said the cameras are not a response to a certain type of crime in the village but will help officers gather information that will “lead us in a better direction” when crimes do occur.
“There isn’t a very specific problem these are going to solve, but in general they will help us,” Jaskiewicz said.
He said PCPD has heard from other police departments “a ton of success stories” regarding the use of Flock cameras, specifically regarding vehicle thefts and vehicle break-ins.
“Those aren’t sales pitches from Flock,” he said.
While Jaskiewicz said there is not necessarily a large number of recovered stolen vehicles within the village, Flock cameras would allow PCPD to detect them when they pass through Plain City.
Likewise, in the case of robberies or vehicle break-ins, Jaskiewicz said law enforcement often has only a vague vehicle description – such as “blue Honda” – to identify a suspect vehicle.
The Flock cameras could provide actual license plate numbers, as well as the direction the suspect vehicle headed following a crime, Jaskiewicz said.
He explained that the data collected by the cameras is stored on Flock servers.
The contract explicitly states that data belongs to and is retained by the Plain City Police Department, and “Flock does not own and shall not sell customer data.”
The data is, however, made available to other law enforcement agencies that also subscribe to the Flock system.
Both the Marysville Police Department and the Union County Sheriff’s Office are among users of the Flock system within central Ohio.
Jaskiewicz emphasized that PCPD is notified when data from its cameras is used.
For that reason, Jaskiewicz said it is similar to information sharing that already occurs between police departments and sheriff’s offices.
He also noted that Flock data is not open to the public and cannot be accessed for public research.
Jaskiewicz also assured residents that PCPD has no intention of using Flock data to track “average citizens.”
“We will be using these for criminal activity and criminal activity alone,” he said.
When researching the Flock system, Jaskiewicz said PCPD officials “had an idea” as to where to place the cameras, as they felt placing them on the edges of town would be most effective.
He said PCPD held meetings in person and online with Flock officials to finalize the locations of the cameras, although Jaskiewicz did not disclose exactly where they would be installed.
Flock representatives initially suggested purchasing seven cameras, Jaskiewicz said, but PCPD decided to begin the program with five.
“As Plain City continues to grow, we’ll continue to evaluate the placement (of the cameras) and see if (the system overall) is beneficial,” he said.
The contract with Flock lists the initial term as 24 months and the renewal term as 24 months.