Council Votes to Expand the Flock Camera Program

In Tuesday, December 6th’s Council Meeting — the final meeting of 2022 — Council voted to expand the Flock License Plate Reader (LPR) Program by permanently purchasing our current 25 cameras and adding 75 more. Vice Mayor Kay and Councilmembers LeGris, Reynolds, and Kloiber were the only no votes.

The Flock LPR Program began as a year-long pilot in March of this year.

• Flock cameras scan license plates as they drive by and check license plate numbers to see if any numbers match ones associated with a crime.

• When a camera finds a match, the police department is alerted of where the car was driving and can begin pursuit of the vehicle for arrest.

• Under the pilot, Lexington was granted 25 cameras from the Flock company for free from March 2022 to March 2023.

• Council added money to this year’s budget to purchase 75 more cameras at the end of the pilot, should they choose to adopt the program fully.

• You can read our summary of the Flock Camera Update from October 18th here.

On Tuesday, November 29th, Mayor Gorton and Police Chief Lawrence Weathers held a joint press conference saying they planned to ask Council to expedite the pilot and move ahead with the purchase of 75 additional cameras to be permanently used in Lexington before the end of 2022.

The Flock Cameras have been controversial since their arrival.

• Some residents have voiced concerns about the cameras invading their rights to privacy and being used to over-police communities of color.

• Other residents, along with the Mayor’s Administration, the Police Department, and several Councilmembers, praise the Flock LPRs for the quick work they’ve done to solve various crimes.

In November 29th’s Council Work Session — after an hour of debate concerning whether moving ahead with the purchase was disrespectful to the pilot process originally planned, and whether or not Council had enough data to make the decision — Council ultimately voted to move the item forward. This vote occurred just hours after the Mayor’s Administration publicly proposed expanding the program.

You can watch the archive of the meeting  on LexTV’s archives page.