Middletown is the latest local community to adopt license plate reading technology. Police this week said the department will install 26 Flock Camera license plate readers throughout the city in August.
The agency says the cameras will help with finding stolen vehicles, missing persons, Amber Alerts, and other vehicle-related crimes.
The motion-activated cameras capture a clear picture of license plates that pass by them, as well as the back of the vehicle, showing color, make and type.
A handful of communities in the Cin-Day corridor also use the Flock Safety cameras.
“The ability to network with other cities and agencies with crucial information, such as Amber Alerts, stolen vehicles, and felony suspect searches, is a game changer for our city. The fact that we can get immediate alerts if those suspects end up in Middletown changes how we do business and solidifies partnerships with surrounding communities,” writes Middletown Police Chief David Birk in a statement.
As WVXU previously reported, Flock Spokesperson Holly Beilin says there are privacy protections in place and the cameras are not looking for speeders. “No speed, no facial recognition," she says. "You can’t search by people. You can only search in the system by the vehicle characteristics.”
The pictures are stored for 30 days.
Beilin says having the license plate numbers is valuable to detectives trying to solve crimes in certain areas. The camera is also linked to an FBI database, as Mt. Healthy Sgt. Alan Fath explained to WVXU when his department added the cameras in April.
