GPD to increase use of security cameras, license plate readers

More neighborhoods in Germantown will soon be privy to the safety benefits that come with having security cameras and license plate readers installed throughout the community.
The Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen was slated to discuss the $75,000 purchase of security cameras and license plate readers Monday night during its regularly scheduled semimonthly meeting.
The money comes from a grant through the Shelby County Commission.
Members of the police department attended a meeting last October to discuss the implementation of technology measures like neighborhood security cameras. This July, Commission Chairman Mark Billingsley approved the grant.
In February, the police department entered into an agreement with Flock Safety for the installation of five fixed mounted cameras. Seven additional cameras were installed in May.
“To date,” said City Administrator Patrick Lawton, “the cameras with license plate reader technology have proven extremely valuable in the department’s effort to keep our community safe.”
Other departments in Shelby County have also used equipment installed by Flock Safety, which gives Germantown the ability to share data and “increase the effectiveness of policing strategies.”
According to Flock Safety’s web site, “82 percent of non-violent crimes go unsolved in the United States. It’s not because police aren’t doing their job, it’s because they lack good evidence. So we set out to build a product that could actually help solve crime. And it became clear that the best way to do that was to provide better evidence to police. We built our cameras with Automatic License Plate Recognition (LPR) capabilities. Because we hear time and again from law enforcement that a license plate is the best piece of evidence.
Flock Safety’s ALPR system securely captures images while the proprietary machine learning algorithm uses Vehicle Fingerprint technology to identify the license plate, vehicle make, type, and color.
The devices can read license plates at up to 75 miles per hour, day and night, and from 75 feet away.