Lexington wants to spend $150,000 on another camera program. Here’s how it would work

When Lexington Police Sgt. Tyson Carroll worked homicide, there were times when he would arrive at the scene of a shooting and a witness would point to one of the city’s more than 130 traffic cameras, telling officers to pull the video from those cameras to identify the suspect.

The problem?

None of the city’s traffic cameras record footage. The cameras are only used by the city’s traffic management center for real time conditions.

But under an ambitious new program unveiled Tuesday in Mayor Linda Gorton’s $505 million budget proposal, the city hopes it can use those cameras and connect them in real time to the city’s 100 license plate reader cameras and private business or home security cameras.

Gorton is requesting $150,000 for a software called Fusus that will help Lexington Police Department complete the project.

“This intelligence software will allow us to combine our existing technology assets, including alerts from Flock license plate readers and video from traffic cameras, while also allowing the voluntary addition of private security cameras from partnering businesses, even residential cameras,” Gorton said.

In addition, police are asking for two full-time analysts who will help monitor and oversee the city’s new real time intelligence center. How much those analysts will cost the department has not yet been determined but will likely be more than $100,000 in additional expenses for salaries and benefits.

Assistant Police Chief Brian Maynard said the city’s traffic cameras will not be used to target or cite motorists for traffic violations. In Kentucky, it is illegal to use cameras for traffic violations, such as running a red light.

The cameras will be used for investigations.

Building off of Flock cameras

Lexington has used license plate reader cameras since March 2022 and is in the process of increasing the number of them around town from 25 to 100. The cameras record license plate numbers. Those license plates are run against various databases — including outstanding warrants, missing persons and stolen vehicles.

The Flock license plate readers have helped find 18 missing persons, allowed police to confiscate 46 guns, led to 246 people arrested and the recovery of $2 million in stolen property, Gorton said.

The license plate readers have not been without controversy.

Some have raised questions about where the cameras are located.

Police have declined to release the location of the cameras, citing security concerns, until all 100 cameras are in place. That should happen soon, Maynard said.

“We understand that people had questions about the locations,” Maynard said of the Flock cameras.

The location of the city’s traffic cameras are already known, he said. Those traffic cameras can be located at https://trafficvid.lexingtonky.gov/publicmap/.

Fusus is unique in that it can help police use license plate readers, traffic cameras and private video from businesses and residents — which police use often — together in one place. Businesses can register their cameras with Fusus to be used at any time or only when police need them. Businesses will not have access to other cameras.

“It will create efficiencies,” Maynard said.

In major investigations, including shootings, time is important.

Using cameras near the Fifth/Third Pavilion in downtown, police were able to get videos of a shooting on Short and Mill streets in 2022. Although the video did not show the shooter’s face, the shooter touched two cars.

“We were able to get fingerprints,” Carroll said.

That saves officers a lot of time, police said.

Technology costs increase

As Lexington police have become reliant on technology, the costs to use those technologies has also steadily increased.

For 75 additional license plate reader cameras, the city will spend around $275,000. Lexington police have also spent millions on body-worn cameras, including an expansion of that program to 175 officers that traditionally do not interact with the public such as assistant chiefs and other personnel.

Costs for software and storage of the video police collect are also climbing.

To store video from the body-worn cameras costs roughly $800,000 annually.

The department is short 105 officers. Efficiencies created by technology can help the under-staffed department, Maynard said.

For example, more than 100 police officers responded to a shooting at the Fayette Mall in August 2020. With no access to Fayette Mall’s cameras, police had to go through and clear each mall store because police did not know where the shooter was located. The shooter was gone within a few minutes of the shooting, cameras later showed.

The total cost of the response to that call is not known but Maynard said it could have been upwards of $50,000 just in overtime costs.

If police had access to more cameras, it could help them in highly volatile situations to find and arrest suspects, he said.

Oversight of Fusus

Louisville, and Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, use Fusus.

Maynard said only officers with certain permissions will be able to access Fusus. Audits will be performed by the department’s public integrity unit to make sure the videos aren’t being accessed by unauthorized people.

Tyler Scott, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the policies for the central intelligence unit are being developed in consultation with the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and the Lexington-Fayette Human Rights Commission.

The department will discuss Fusus and how it will be used at a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council Social Services and Public Safety Committee meeting May 2. All the policies will be posted on the department’s transparency page, he said.