Tega Cay, South Carolina, is a unique community, geographically-speaking. The Charlotte suburb (though technically across the Carolina border, it is only 20 miles from Charlotte) is situated on a peninsula along Lake Wylie on the scenic Catawba River. Appropriately, Tega Cay is Polynesian for “Beautiful Peninsula.”

While Tega Cay itself has very low crime rates, according to its Police Chief Steve Parker, it does see spillover from Charlotte just up the road. Suspects wanted by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police will drive through the small town, and it gets its fair share of stolen cars, robberies, and property crime.

But, because of that unique Tega Cay geography, Chief Parker realized that, if law enforcement could focus on the limited access points to the community, in essence creating a “virtual gate,” they had a real chance of making a serious dent in crime. He wanted more information so the 33 Tega Cay officers could spend their energy and resources on the places that would be most fruitful for stopping suspects and preventing crime. 

Enter Flock Safety.

“There are only four or six ways to get inside the city limits. We placed the Flock Safety cameras at those entrances, and we immediately saw fruit. We saw stolen cars, we identified an individual wanted for strangulation, an escaped criminal that had come into our community — we would not have known about those things.”

Flock Safety Virtual Gate Offers “Immediate Benefit” to Tega Cay

Chief Parker, a thoughtful, intentional law enforcement leader, was introduced to Flock Safety in summer of 2020 and installed four cameras to create that virtual gate a few months later. 

“We’ve wanted LPR for quite some time but the cost of it was prohibitive,” he explained. Flock Safety’s LPR technology fits into Chief Parker’s budget and policing goals. 

“We had some areas that we thought had most of the crime in our jurisdiction, but by using Flock we were really able to figure out that it’s actually more a different area where suspects are entering the city,” said Chief Parker. “So we’re able to put more resources into that area and prevent more crime that way.”

Tega Cay PD partners with the neighboring jurisdiction of Fort Mill, who also has Flock Safety LPR cameras. In one case, the two departments were able to partner and save the life of an individual planning to commit suicide. 

“The information sharing was huge. We put [this individual] in our system to try to locate him, and immediately the adjacent agency got a hit on their system. We were able to locate him, get him to a hospital, and save his life,” beams Chief Parker.

They have also identified suspects wanted for larceny, strangulation, drug possession and distribution, burglary, and possession of stolen firearms. 

“We showed the City Council these results after three months — how many suspects we’ve arrested, how many hits we’ve had, and they saw the value. They’re ready for more cameras.”

Technology Helps Protect and Serve

In working closely with City Council and the local community, Chief Parker has built trust and integrity for the agency and their chosen methods of policing. 

“The emphasis in law enforcement now is, and should be, community. We’ve stepped up — we’re doing constant programs with the community,” he shared. “For something as important as Flock Safety, having the community buy into it and be our partner in it is huge, because we cannot do it alone.”

And he doesn’t intend to waste that trust, maintaining the importance of transparency, constant vigilance, and critical oversight of technology.

“What are you going to gain in using the tax dollars of citizens, and are they going to be able to get something for their money? We were able to evaluate that Flock Safety is a no brainer for us to reduce crime.”

“Everything for us is about protect and serve.”

Police departments and law enforcement interested in the Flock Safety product suite can learn more here.

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