Why Law Enforcement IT Leaders Choose Flock Safety Cameras
Why Law Enforcement IT Leaders Choose Flock Safety Cameras
You might think of the image of crime fighting as a patrol officer cruising the streets, or a detective on the hunt for evidence — but perhaps not of a highly-specialized researcher analyzing mounds of data. Policing today can take full advantage of the technologies that help other industries be more efficient and effective, and that includes the value of what we call “big data”.
Eleazer Hunt spends his time thinking about the tools that will help Greenville Police officers be most effective at fighting crime. As Strategic Planning and Analysis Administrator for Greenville PD in South Carolina, Hunt leads a team that analyzes historical and current data to continuously improve public safety.
By decoding information gathered from suspect arrests, pursuits, traffic stops, citations, police reports and more, Hunt’s team can pinpoint where officers should position themselves to have the biggest impact on crime, and what technologies work best for crime reduction.
In 2020, Hunt’s team decided to begin a pilot with Flock Safety, installing Flock license plate reading cameras throughout the city. One major advantage for Hunt was the bias reduction impact of the technology: instead of officers deciding which license plates to run, the Flock Safety system does it automatically.
“What I like about this LPR system is it begins to address the issue of bias in policing,” said Hunt. “Every vehicle that goes by has the same probability of having its license plate read and being compared against the national database.”
Using Flock Safety’s automatic Hot List notifications, the police department has been able to better allocate their resources to reduce and prevent crime in Greenville.
“I would much rather have our officers spend their time stopping vehicles where they get an alert that is already in the national database,” explained Hunt. The Flock Safety system eliminates redundancy and helps ensure that officers are in the right place at the right time.
Over the course of the six-month pilot, Flock Safety cameras helped the Greenville Police Department solve hundreds of crimes including recovering over 75 stolen vehicles worth around $400,000.
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