Flock Safety creates solar-powered cameras that scan license plates and provide information to law enforcement.
Provided photo by Flock Safety
License plate reader cameras to help Whiteland Police won’t be a reality anytime soon after a town council vote.
The Whiteland Town Council denied a purchase agreement on Tuesday for Flock Safety license plate readers which would’ve been placed on Whiteland Road between Warrior Trail and Bob Glidden Boulevard. The location is near a future roundabout at Whiteland Road and Bob Glidden Boulevard that is expected to start construction in the spring.
The council voted 3-2 against signing the purchase agreement. Council members Tim Brown, Brad Goedeker and Joe Sayler voted against, while council president Richard Hill and vice president Deb Hendrickson voted in favor.
The purchase agreement included cameras that would’ve cost $3,000 per camera a year and a two-year subscription that would’ve allowed the Whiteland Police Department. to gather information from license plate readers all across the country, said Carmen Young, town manager.
Flock offers automated license plate readers, or LPRs, and video surveillance systems designed to capture vehicle information that can link vehicles to crime, according to their website.
“I can think of two burglaries, a robbery and several thefts that we’ve solved just by having access to those license plate reader cameras,” said Derek Cox, Whiteland police chief. “And that was back when they weren’t even as close to where they are now on [U.S.] 31. They were down around Earlywood in Franklin and up in Greenwood.”
The cameras can help with investigating hit-and-run crashes, as the department responds to two to five of them a day at truck stops and at the interstate, Cox said.
“It helps us when we don’t have the officers to sit all around town to watch the intersections and areas where we know these things are going on,” Cox said. “It gives us access to be able to investigate those things, to be able to get on and log in and search for vehicles seen at [the time of incidents].”
He later said 80% of the department’s calls involve hit and runs, crashes, thefts and other crime near the Amazon or the DHL warehouse.
Flock cameras are widely used throughout the county by both public and private entities, Cox said. Most communities in the community have them installed alogn major thoroughfares, and some neighborhoods have installed them on their own.
Additionally, Clark-Pleasant Community Schools and the State of Indiana, use the technology, Young said.
Specifically, the planned Whiteland cameras would’ve been installed for westbound traffic at the corner of Warrior Trail and Whiteland Road, and for the eastbound traffic at one of the Amazon entrances. The cameras would have stayed outside of construction limits for the roundabout, been moveable and solar-powered, Young said.
One way the town could’ve paid for the cameras was with a $10,000 donation that the food service company Sugar Foods was amenable to, Hill said. The donation will be provided as part of a tax abatement for Sugar Foods’ new facility coming to Whiteland.
However, a majority of the council voted against adding Flock cameras. Brown and Sayler were opposed to a private company creating a database that law enforcement agencies pay for and the government watching people who aren’t suspects.
“I am not going to support it personally,” Sayler said. “I understand that it’s already in place. I understand that it’s already functional [in] most places. I understand most of our neighbors have it, but I felt the same way back when I was a prosecutor as I do now.”
Goedeker also wasn’t in favor of officials monitoring motorists.
“I also am very hesitant for additional government oversight on folks that are not subject to an investigation or something,” Goedeker said.
Cox emphasized the Flock cameras would give the police department an additional investigative tool. Police officers would be able to go back and investigate something that happened on the opposite side of town from where an officer is.
While Hill “agree[d] wholeheartedly” with other council members and didn’t like the idea of innocent people being watched by cameras, he would want the cameras to be in place if there was a problem, he said.
“I would hope that there would be some tool to investigate, to hold the person accountable for damaging my vehicle or hurting me or my family,” Hill said. “It’s like anything else, technology has good and bad points, it all depends on what your intention is.”
Hendrickson motioned to sign the contract, saying that the town council could revisit the issue after two years if they didn’t like the subscription. Her motion was denied 3-2.
Without a signed purchase agreement, there will be no Flock cameras installed by the town, even though funding for the cameras had been approved and funded as part of the roundabout project.
Despite the council’s vote, Cox still believes Flock cameras and license plate readers “are a valuable investigative tool.”
“I understand and appreciate the concerns voiced by town council members at last night’s meeting,” Cox told the Daily Journal. “I hope to address those concerns and work with the council in the future toward implementation of a Flock/LPR program in the town of Whiteland.”
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