INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Independence Police Department is set to roll out a new tool to crack down on crime. The city will be installing more than 30 cameras that read license plates.
“Basically, it casts a net over the city where if someone wants to come in, most of the times the bad guys are coming in a vehicle, they’re going to have to go by one of these cameras coming or going if not several,” said Independence Police Chief Michael Kilbane.
Independence police will be using 31 Flock Safety cameras to both solve and deter crime.
“Atlanta was the first metro area that got into these license plate reader cameras. They saw a double-digit decrease in property crimes, violent crimes, and their solve rate went up because of the resources of this investigative tool,” Kilbane said.
“As soon as I call 911 my license plate is added to a national database so every Flock Camera across the country is on the lookout,” said Garrett Langley, Founder Flock Security.
When a camera spots a stolen car, an alert is sent to a nearby officer that a stolen car is in the area. Langley, an electrical engineer, came up with the idea after his own neighborhood was hit by car vandals.
So far, he said, Flock Cameras are in more than a thousand cities including Mentor, Hunting Valley, and Dayton. Langley said there has been a 42% decrease in crime in Dayton.
Independence plans to install the cameras and have them up and running within six weeks.
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