Fredericksburg is going Flock.
At Tuesday evening’s city council meeting, Fredericksburg Police Chief Brian Layton presented a briefing on Flock Safety’s license plate recognition (LPR) cameras and the benefits the company’s technology would bring to the city.
LPR cameras are designed to gather “objective evidence” about each vehicle, including plate, make, model and color. This enables law enforcement to more efficiently and effectively identify wanted or stolen cars, as well as missing or wanted people associated with a particular vehicle, like Amber Alerts. LPR cameras aren’t designed to identify people, nor ticket speeders or red light runners.
The city’s police department recently received funds for Flock Safety’s LPR cameras in the form of two police grants. These include $12,600 from the Department of Criminal Justice Services ($3,150 of that is a requires a local match from the city) and $12,500 from the Virginia State Police (with no required local match).
Flock Safety isn’t new to Fredericksburg.
Commercial businesses and homeowners associations have already installed and begun using the system. Chief Layton described a recent incident where a specific vehicle wanted in another precinct was identified by a local big box retailer that had installed LPR cameras at its locations around the region. He explained that the system can also locate cars using only partial license plates, taking the available data to scrutiny future results to potentially identify the desired vehicle.
Chief Layton anticipates these upgrades will become a force multiplier, as the technology is operational around the clock and will aid officers and detectives solve crime while also serving as a deterrent. He told council that Flock Safety systems are already in use by over 4,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation, including 100 in the state of Virginia.
In the city of Fredericksburg, LPR cameras will be installed at “gateway areas,” or at fixed locations at entrances and exits to the city of Fredericksburg. Chief Layton’s presentation stated that information and data is transferred using end-to-end encryption and is shared with law enforcement partners only. That includes out-of-state agencies. In fact, the technology will identify a vehicle wanted in Virginia if it’s identified by Flock Safety system anywhere throughout the United States. Data is automatically deleted after 30 days.
Chief Layton also announced that the department will provide a community transparency portal, which will be hosted on the FPD website. That will include the city’s Flock policy and when it can be used, a tally of how many vehicles have passed through the city’s LPR cameras, a hot list of alerts including stolen and wanted cars, a list of law enforcement agencies that have access to the information and the number of searches through the system conducted by area law enforcement.
Anytime an officer or detectives searches the flock system, it will have to be for legitimate law enforcement reasons, which must be detailed in the software. The city’s 911 operators will also have access.
According to Chief Layton, Fairfax County implemented flock technology back in November 2022. In the first five months, law enforcement recovered 30 vehicles, recovered six firearms, arrested 50 offenders and located four missing people.
The grant will provide the city with eight cameras. Without the grant, each camera will cost approximately $3,000 a year. That’s a leasing fee; the city won’t own any of the equipment. The department can and will continue to seek additional grants, Chief Layton told council.
Eight cameras is “the tip of the iceberg.”
Chief Layton said he consulted with Detective Division Captain Rashawn Coles (who was also present) about how many cameras the city would need to cover all of its gateways in the future. He said their determination was 35.
“Right now, gateways are the fairest thing to do. We’re not targeting a specific neighborhood with this, it’s just vehicles coming in and exiting the city,” Layton said.
“I think it’s a good way to start this program.”
The city council voted unanimously to amend its budget and approve the police department’s grants.
Fredericksburg won’t be alone when it comes to Flock Safety. Chief Layton says all of Fredericksburg’s neighboring counties are looking into the technology and that one is currently “getting involved.”
And LPR cameras won’t be alone in monitoring city streets. The city council approved speed limit cameras at Hugh Mercer Elementary and James Monroe High School earlier this summer.
