Council heard an update on Flock Cameras
In Tuesday February 28th, Work Session, Council heard a presentation on Flock Cameras. Lexington Police Department (LPD) acquired 25 Flock Cameras in early 2022 for a year-long pilot. In December, though, Council voted to move ahead with leasing 75 extra Cameras before the pilot was scheduled to wrap up this March. You can read about how Flock Cameras work, and their discussions in past Council Meetings, here.
According to LPD, Flock Cameras have helped:
Recover 129 stolen vehicles with a total value of $1.9 millions dollars
Locate 15 missing people
Cut the length of time for stolen vehicle recovery nearly in half
Once all Flock Cameras are installed, LPD will post locations of the Cameras publicly. Installation of the remaining cameras will begin soon.
LPD Chief Lawrence Weathers shared that LPD is unsure when the remaining 75 cameras will be fully installed. LPD has said in the past that when all of the 100 total cameras are installed, LPD will publicize the locations of the cameras. However, Chief Weathers said that they may publish locations sooner once they reach a number he feels "comfortable" with, although he did not state what that number was.
Outside of Council's questions about locations, Council also asked questions about how confident LPD felt that Flock Cameras were truly helping solve crimes quicker. Suggestions from Council to improve transparency and prove their data's integrity was posting more data showing Flock Camera's impact on types of crimes on their Transparency Page, and developing a more robust auditing process of the cameras. Council took no actions related to the Flock Camera program.
