Great Parks Use of Flock Cameras

Great Parks Use of Flock Cameras

Great Parks Rangers utilize Flock cameras to support the safety of our guests, employees and volunteers. Data from the cameras aids criminal investigations and missing persons cases, providing information that would not otherwise be available for these investigations.

Great Parks has 13 Flock cameras positioned throughout our 23 parks and conservation areas. Great Parks Rangers have utilized the license plate reading technology to flag when sex offenders enter a park, locate critical missing persons, complete theft investigations, complete sexual assault investigations, and identify stolen vehicles entering the parks. In these examples, the license-plate reading technology is a difference-maker in our investigations, allowing us to close them quickly.

Importantly, the technology also allows us to share critical information with law enforcement agencies from other park districts and municipalities. Some crime trends, such as car break-ins, for example, are common in parks, and our ability to share Flock data with other agencies is critical to our ability to enforce the law and provide public safety.

The technology in these cameras captures only license plates and vehicle information. The cameras do not have the capability to capture facial recognition, personal identities, gender or race of the vehicle operator. Great Parks policy on the cameras prohibits their use for immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, personal use, reproductive care, or usage based solely on a protected class, such as race, sex or religion. The system deletes information from the cameras after 30 days. After the data is captured, any system access requires a valid law enforcement reason, and these justifications are stored indefinitely, even after the license plate data itself is deleted.

The Flock company has much more information on the use of these cameras on its website, Flocksafety.com.