

Now is the perfect time for such a program to go into effect.įirst, let’s look at the position of the opposition. license-plate-reading-camera compromise the village just passed.
FLOCK CAMERA TRIAL
Several other Northeast Ohio communities use Flock cameras, including Cleveland, Solon, Bainbridge, Macedonia, Mentor, Westlake, Avon Lake, Lakewood, Willoughby, Brunswick among others.I have to strongly disagree with Wednesday Journal on the timing of the one-year trial period of the eight Flock Safety Inc. We'll keep it as long-term evidence, not just a database where we can search people who have come and gone." "If we do find evidence, we can pull it off the system and store it in. This system is just capturing information that's already available to us, putting it together in a format that's making it more useful," he said.Ĭaprez said the system is designed to store data for 30 days before it's automatically deleted. "Pedestrian movement will not cause the camera to go off. Did you go to the gun show? Are you seeking an abortion?"Ĭaprez said he understands the privacy concerns, but stressed the focus is on solving crimes not following average residents. "Just imagine a system where police could quite literally follow you around or piece together where you worship. "What are they used for? What can we not use them for? For instance, stationing them outside political protests or rallies," Daniels said. He believes police department and cities need to be clear about regulating and restricting the way the cameras are utilized.
FLOCK CAMERA LICENSE
"Automatic license plate readers have tremendous capacity if they are tweaked or set up in such a way to monitor our daily whereabouts," Daniels said. However, Gary Daniels from the ACLU of Ohio has privacy concerns with the license plate readers. "We can put that information into the system and anytime a vehicle matching that description passes a Flock camera, we will get an audio and visual alert," Caprez said. "If all we had was a white Honda with a rack on the top and no plate, that would allow us to see all the possible plates for all those vehicles," Caprez said.Īkron police see the technology as a game-changer, giving officers access to a tool that could help track down suspects who drive off from violent crimes or steal cars. When he added a roof rack to the search, the number of cars was narrowed down to seven. "There were 178 different captures of white Honda SUV's in the city of Akron in the last 24 hours," Caprez said. The deputy chief gave News 5 a demonstration by creating a "hot list" to search for sightings of any white Honda SUV captured by the current 28 Flock cameras. "It could definitely help locate and send more police to that area," Nash added.Ĭaprez said over the past week the cameras have already helped police spot and recover stolen cars. There's too much crime that goes on that people just run away from," Anderson said. "I think there should definitely be some cameras. Ryan Anderson and Olivia Nash, both freshmen at UA, said they welcome the cameras as a way to fight crime. Safety concerns around the university were heightened last September after a shooting took the lives of Maya McFetridge and Alex Beasley just off campus. In addition, there will be several cameras near the University of Akron. The yearly reoccurring cost will be $362,000.ĭeputy Chief Mike Caprez said the cameras, which use "object recognition", will be mounted in many different neighborhoods in all wards of the city, but there will be a greater saturation in higher crime areas as determined by data. The city used $405,000 in American Rescue Plan dollars to pay for the system.

So far, 28 of the cameras are up and 117 more will be installed possibly by the end of the month. Last week the city began installing Flock automated license plate readers (ALPR) throughout Akron. We're not talking about more officers, rather the eyes of surveillance cameras that capture photos of license plates.

AKRON, Ohio - The Akron Police Department is adding a bunch of new eyes to the streets.
