Sheriff requests purchase of cameras with license plate recognition technology

Nov. 10—MOULTRIE — At Tuesday night's work session of the Colquitt County Commission a request was made by Sheriff Rod Howell to purchase three cameras that employ license plate recognition technology.

"We need more cameras and we need an amendment for it and he's gonna tell you why," said Howell matter-of-factly.

He turned the presentation over to Sheriff's Office Investigator Ronald Jordan, who introduced Amy Cornell, a community affairs manager with Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company that the cameras would be purchased from.

"We went ahead and purchased a couple of Flock cameras with last year's budget and we're impressed with them so far and we're gonna ask for a few more to collect some data and she's going to tell you why it's a good idea," said Jordan

Cornell made a slide presentation on Flock Safety license plate recognition (LPR) cameras to the commissioners and answered questions from them about the functionality and the cost.

She told the commissioners that the objective of the company was to create a product that was "easy to use, easy to install, affordable and also protects privacy."

"This is really a technology that was designed to work with the sheriff's office. Of course, it doesn't take away the need for great police work but it's just a technology for them to use to really multiply the force," she said.

She presented a slide that showed an example of what the camera would capture, which was the back of a vehicle. She said the camera would capture objective evidence including the liscense plate number, the make and model of the vehicle and the color of the vehicle.

"What you're not seeing are the occupants of the vehicle, who's driving the vehicle or if there's anybody inside," Cornell said, emphasizing that the cameras were "ethically made' so there was no facial recognition or personally identifiable information gathered.

She also said that, as they were not red-light cameras, they were not designed for traffic enforcement.

She said the data collected is not stored beyond a 30-day period unless it's being used in a criminal investigation. The photos are stored in a web service cloud and are deleted automatically every 30 days.

"I want to talk a little bit about how we protect privacy. ... So the footage is completely owned by the agency. So it's owned by the Sheriff's Office. We don't sell or share that data ever," Cornell said. "Also, important to note is a search reason is required. Nobody would be able to go in and just start looking up random vehicles that passed by specific cameras."

She said the search reason could be a case number, a reported crime, a missing person or an Amber Alert, and each user of the system could be identified through an individual log-in.

Cornell concluded the presentation with some examples of how data collected was used in busting a shop-lifting operation, finding a kidnapping victim, finding a missing elderly man and to quickly find an abducted child that had been taken to another state.

"What's it cost?" asked County Commission Chairman Denver Braswell, which got some laughs from the other commissioners.

She said that it was $3,000 per camera per year and a one-time installation fee, which depended on what the installation looked like.

Jordan stated that the Sheriff's Office had received a quote for three cameras and it came out to a little over $10,000.

Austin Cannon spoke up saying that he could give the commissioners a little insight into what the Flock cameras have done already in Colquitt County. He introduced himself as an officer working criminal investigations in felony crimes for about nine years.

"I got access to their software for about two weeks. And in those two weeks that I had access to the software, we solved a kidnapping where we located a suspect's vehicle in Albany, we solved a missing person's where that subject was experiencing a traumatic incident from a PTSD-related event that he had gone on and we solved a vehicle theft. ... That was two weeks that I had access to it," he said.

He said that for those reasons alone, because he worked in investigations, that it was worth it to him.

"I didn't know the revenue-generating ability that it had. One camera, 14 days, has already made $11,000 just on expired tags and suspended registrations. That's only with three deputies using it right now," Cannon said.

Howell told the commissioners that was part of the traffic unit that he had set up that he had told them about previously. He said the officers were using the camera to get probable cause to make their cases. He also said that both Albany and Thomasville had quite a few of the LPR cameras and they were in talks with them about sharing information.

"So, the big thing is we're planning in the budget for next year to ask for about $100,000 worth of cameras, somewhere in that vicinity. And that's a big ask. So we want to get three more cameras right now, which will bring us to four permanent-mounted cameras so we can collect data to make sure that it's gonna pay for itself or come close to paying for itself," said Jordan

"For four major corridors," added Howell.

Jordan said that they know that they are going to be able to solve crimes with them like if someone was breaking into cars but let the cameras pay for themselves off of citations.

"This isn't mailing tickets to people's houses. A deputy still's got to go and make contact with you," said Jordan clarified.

"And it's not obtaining speed. We're not after things like that," added Cannon.

County Administrator Chas Cannon asked Cornell if there was anything out there that could prevent the cameras from working. Cornell responded that Flock Safety and the Sheriff's Office are notified right away if a camera goes down, and in a 72-hour period someone would assess what was wrong with the camera and how long it will take to get it back up and running.

"So if they learn that we're taking their tag numbers, I guess they can just cover them up at some point. Is there any deterrent to that?" Cannon asked.

Cornell said that they would know right away if the camera was covered or not working or they weren't getting any images off of it.

Jordan spoke up and said that the camera doesn't as much as pick-up tags. It takes pictures of every vehicle that drives by and uses a little bit of AI technology.

"You can actually search the database, 'I just want white Chevy four-door cars with bumper stickers.' And it picks up the tail-light patterns to know what the Chevy cars are. It doesn't read the tag and say, 'Oh, this comes back to a Chevy so we're gonna put it on the Chevy list.' So it uses AI technology to learn the tail-light pattern of all these different vehicles," he further explained.

If there was an armed robbery at a gas station at 2 a.m. and the only information that they had was that it was a silver four-door car, Jordan said, the system would be able to pull up every silver four-door vehicle that came by the camera within a specific time frame.

Braswell asked how Colquitt County could see the other counties' camera feed and them see our feed.

Jordan responded, "Shared network. So, we grant them access to view our cameras and they grant us access to view theirs and we kind of work together and we'll be able to utilize all their cameras on their system, if they allow it. Everybody in our area has been more than happy to."

Commissioner Marc DeMott wanted to know how often the camera uploaded data and if it worked on cell service, and Cornell responded that the cameras did work on cell service and were constantly taking photos that were uploaded within a few seconds.

Cannon asked if there were any court cases against invasion of privacy and Cornell shook her head "no."

Jordan told Cannon that the system was drawing data from the Department of Revenue so it was all state records and there was nothing contrary to the Fourth Amendment about that. He also added that part of their policy was that the cameras had to be facing public roadways. They would not be collecting data going down private drives.

Braswell asked Cornell if she had seen any areas that had gotten the LPR cameras and then reduced the number of them because the crime rate had gone down.

"I don't think. If that has happened, then it's not common. I haven't heard of any personally. Most of the time they're increasing the number of cameras they get rather than decreasing because they're finding that the area of jurisdiction is going to need a little bit more to put it in more locations," she replied.

DeMott wanted to know if they would advertise that an individual is going to get their picture taken at the location of the camera or if the cameras would be hidden.

Cornell said that they meet with the agencies to determine what the best plan for a roll-out would be and they also will hold community meetings to let them know, "this is coming" or more about the technology.

"We leave it up to the individual agency to determine if they're going to publish or release the actual locations of where those cameras are," she said.

"I know the public does not like traffic cams and I wouldn't want them to think they're traffic cams," DeMott said.

Howell said that's not what the cameras were for and gave an example of using the camera and data system to find a missing older woman, with impaired faculties, by using the tag number of the vehicle that she was driving.

He also said, "If somebody robs something in Cordele, and they put that tag number in there and they're coming to Moultrie, I want us to catch them."

Braswell asked if each camera had to have power or if they were all solar-powered and Cornell replied that they're were a couple of options but most of the cameras that Flock Safety employed were solar-powered. However, there was a hardwired camera option, too. She said it just depended on the area that the camera is located in and her company would come out and make their recommendations.

Braswell also wanted to know if, once a camera was installed, could it be moved to another location and she said it could definitely be moved if necessary.

Cannon asked for the total quote for the three cameras and Jordan said that it would be $10,950 for the first year and $9,000 for the second year.

Commissioner Barbara Jelks asked, "What's the life of this equipment? How long does it last? Has it got to be replaced often?"

Cornell said that it should last for quite awhile and that it didn't need to be replaced very often.

Cannon asked if there were any other questions and when no one answered, he thanked them for their presentation.

In other business:

County Attorney Lester Castellow addressed the amendment to the Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance that the commission had him review at the request of a citizen. It was asked if the commission would consider protecting churches from a liquor store opening across the street. The ordinance was amended to propose a distance restriction on building a liquor store within a 100 yards of a church, measured from property line to property line. A motion was made to approve the amendment, seconded and passed unanimously. Also, it was voted unanimously to rescind the moratorium on liquor licenses that had been imposed.