Flock Safety
In March, police in an Atlanta suburb embarked on a surveillance experiment in the hopes of reducing crime in the area. Along public roads near the local Six Flags amusement park, officers from the Cobb County Police Department installed 13 solar-powered from Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based startup on a mission to “eliminate nonviolent crime.” The company’s cameras, which typically cost around $2,000 a year each to rent and operate, were loaned to Cobb County free of charge.Law enforcement officials chose the area, known as Zone 2, Beat 215, because it’s experienced disproportionately high amounts of property and violent crime, says Stuart VanHoozer, Cobb County’s deputy chief of police. During the first six months the license plate readers were installed, VanHoozer says he observed a dramatic change: The number of reported crimes like robbery and nonresidential burglary dropped over 50 percent apiece compared with the same period the year before. Between March and August, the department recorded 50 instances of “entering auto,” Georgia’s term for breaking and entering into a vehicle, compared with 138 over the same time in 2018. “It was not a decrease that we expected to see,” says VanHoozer.On the surface, it appears as though a simple fix—installing relatively discrete license-plate readers—had an enormous positive impact. That’s the narrative Flock Safety has put forward.
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The company proudly touted the results of the Cobb County pilot in a press release it sent to WIRED this week, and advertises on its website that it solves “.”. But experts say it’s not that simple, and that establishing a causal relationship between any given variable and fluctuating crime rates is no easy task.
“I am not saying that the readers did not have an effect on crime—it is just that we cannot attribute any reduction in crime to the readers themselves,” says Alex Piquero, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas, Dallas.Even police agree. “To make it very clear, we are not 100 percent positive that Flock cameras were the difference,” notes VanHoozer. “What we did see, though, is an incredible decrease in crime, starting when we put these cameras down there.”. Photograph: Flock SafetyPolice departments have been using surveillance like for years. They’re often supplied by technology vendors like, which markets them directly to law enforcement. Flock Safety—a former startup backed by Founders Fund—is one of several newer technology firms selling surveillance tech to private citizens.
Josh Thomas, the head of marketing at Flock Safety, says the company generally targets groups like homeowners' associations, whose members pay for the readers to be installed in their communities. Another company, Ring, which was acquired by Amazon last year, sells doorbell cameras for homes and businesses. Both Flock Safety and Ring have worked with law enforcement, and the latter's relationships with across the country, in particular, has from civil liberties groups and others. Advances in surveillance technology have spurred an ongoing debate over privacy and security, and whether individual trade-offs are justified in the name of public safety. Flock and Ring sell consumers on the idea that their products have the power to not only catch criminals, but also deter them from offending in the first place. Is there something about license plate readers you think we should know?
Contact the author at or via Signal at 347-966-3806. WIRED protects the confidentiality of its sources, but if you wish to conceal your identity, here are the instructions for using. You can also mail us materials at 520 Third Street, Suite 350, San Francisco, CA 94107.“It’s in the interest of the jurisdiction and the manufacturer to advance the notion that this is the latest and most sophisticated technology,” says Elias Silverman, professor emeritus at John Jay School of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. “One needs to take these advances with a grain of salt and acknowledge they need to be studied by others.' Flock’s cameras are now used in over 400 communities in 35 states, and have been credited with helping police solve a series of serious cases. But the overall effect installing license plate readers has on crime rates still isn’t clear, and likely can’t be determined by conducting a short experiment. Some indicate the readers don’t deter crime, while others the devices certain types of offenses.Maria Cuellar, a professor of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania who researches the use of statistics in the law, says pilots like the one in Cobb County only provide before and after comparisons, which alone can’t prove a causal relationship.
“The problem with these is that so many things could have changed between the ‘before’ period and the ‘after’ period,” she adds. That includes everything from the number of cars passing through the area to broader demographic changes. Watch dogs legion trailer. The study was also relatively short.
“With such a small sample size in terms of time, any changes could likely be noise rather than an actual signal,” says Cuellar.Wider trends too have to be taken into account. Police say crime is down overall in Cobb County, as well as in nearby Atlanta. “We do believe that there are other things we are doing that have attributed to the general decline in crime,” says VanHoozer. He notes there are also social factors that might be contributing to the drop, like low unemployment. Photograph: Flock SafetyAnother possibility is that Flock’s license plate readers helped police apprehend a relatively small group of criminals who were responsible for the bulk of the crime in the area. In other words, rather than deterring people from committing an offense in the first place, the license plate readers may have helped apprehend repeat offenders.Cops have used license plate readers for at least a decade, but the ones made by Flock Safety are arguably more powerful.
They automatically catalog a vehicle’s model, color, make, and any distinguishing marks, as well as the date and time they passed through the neighborhood. The cameras ping law enforcement the minute a known stolen vehicle crosses their path, a feature VanHoozer says has been particularly useful in Cobb County. The Flock LPRs are even capable of detecting people walking by, and whether they have a dog in tow. The latest on, from machine learning to computer vision and moreThere are safeguards in place for how Cobb County police can use the cameras. Flock Safety only allows footage to be retained for 30 days, and according to department policy, officers need to document a legitimate law-enforcement reason and case number to access the tapes. But Flock Safety’s license plate readers are also used by private individuals, who aren’t subject to the same oversight.
It’s possible a homeowners' association may use the readers to improperly spy on or surveil its neighbors, for instance. Last year, two men driving in the Bay Area said they were as police pointed guns at them, after an automatic license-plate reader incorrectly identified their rental car as stolen.As license plate readers are installed in more communities, citizens will need to weigh the potential privacy risks against the promise they will reduce crime in their neighborhood. They should also keep in mind that a whole host of things can impact crime rates, and while surveillance technology is an increasingly common variable, it’s not the only one.Is there something about license plate readers you think we should know? Contact the author at or via Signal at 347-966-3806.
Atlanta, GA, Oct. 25, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flock Safety, a crime-solving company that provides the most advanced and affordable public safety technology for neighborhoods, small businesses, and law enforcement today announced a partnership with Genetec Inc., a provider of leading technology for unified security, public safety, and operations. Rolly vortex play online. The companies will integrate their solutions, the Genetec CitigrafTM decision support system and Flock Safety’s ALPR system, to pave the way for private citizens to help law enforcement agencies proactively solve more crime and increase public safety.
According to the 2018 FBI Crime Statistics report, up to 86 percent of nonviolent crimes remainunsolved and this is often due to a lack of evidence that police say starts with the license plate. Flock Safety license plate reading cameras provide evidence for police to solve up to five crimes every hour in 400 cities across the country. In Cobb County, GA, police reported over 60 percent reduction in crime where Flock Safety cameras were live.
Genetec provides a powerful software backbone in Genetec CitigrafTM that provides cities of all sizes real-time situational awareness and strategic insights by aggregating and analyzing datafrom a multitude of systems and sources including the Flock Safety ALPR system.
'Technology is only as valuable as its impact on real life,' said Bob Carter, Commercial Head, City Practice USA at Genetec Inc. 'Through this technology integration with Flock Safety we are able to help small municipalities and large metropolitan centers to unlock greater insights from their local datasets to improve policing and create safer communities.'
“This partnership with Genetec brings crime-fighting technology to the places that need it most,” said Bailey Quintrell, VP of Strategy at Flock Safety. “The safest communities are those with deep public-private partnership, and working together with Genetec we’ll be able to make these partnerships a reality for any community.”
To learn more, visit flocksafety.com
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About Flock Safety: Flock Safety is a crime-solving company that provides the most advanced and affordable security for neighborhoods, small businesses, and law enforcement. With its 24 hour wireless cameras designed to capture license plates, Flock Safety gathers information that can be used by local police to investigate crime and is using that technology to solve up to five crimes per hour, nationwide. Flock Safety is a venture-backed startup based in Atlanta, Georgia. Visit www.flocksafety.com for more information.
About the Genetec Inc – Genetec is a global provider of IP video surveillance, access control and license plate recognition solutions unified in a single platform, called Security Center. We work with partners on six continents to help provide safer, more secure environments for small to medium-sized and enterprise-class businesses in over 80 countries.