EASTPOINTE — The Eastpointe City Council had recently voted 4-1 in favor of purchasing eighteen (18) FLOCK cameras, set to be installed around the city soon.
Eastpointe Police Chief Corey Haines says that the cameras will help authorities detect stolen vehicles, locate/identify vehicles wanted for homicides, robberies, etc. “There’s a lot of investigative use for it.”
On April 1, the contract between FLOCK and Eastpointe Police was set to expire. Eastpointe never had plate recognition cameras prior to this new approval, but under their contract, had access to other cities informations from their cameras.
The approval and purchase of their own cameras re-instates the contract, and allows Eastpointe Police detectives to send their own information into the system - as well as utilize cameras in their own city.
“If we do not install Flock cameras, we will lose our investigative tool of having that to operate with as of April 1, which would be a really difficult thing for our detective bureau, since they rely on this information quite heavily,” Haines said.
A recent grant authorized will cover all but $4,600 for the purchase of the new cameras. The recurring charges will be present in to 2025 city budget.
Flock cameras are automated license plate-reading cameras designed to capture license plate data from vehicles that are in public view. The data, which are kept on file for 30 days, are then shared with not only neighboring jurisdictions, but any police department in the country that has access to the system’s database. These cameras will alert nearby police dispatch centers of vehicles that pass by them if it’s a wanted vehicle, such as stolen, or connected to a felony crime or police investigation.
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