Harwood Heights and Norridge are installing license plate-reading camera technology that police officials say will help them track potential offenders driving in the two towns.
Flock Safety makes cameras that use optical character recognition, a technology the Atlanta, Georgia-based company says can accurately identify the license plate numbers of a car whizzing by at a high rate of speed.
The village boards of both Harwood Heights and Norridge recently approved the purchase of the new surveillance systems to aid law enforcement with what they hope will deter criminals.
“These aren’t red light or speed cameras,” Harwood Heights Police Chief John DeVries said. “They accurately identify plate numbers and vehicle characteristics so we can locate a stolen car, for example. It can let us know when a criminal enters our town and we can track them before they commit another crime.”
The Harwood Heights Village Board last month unanimously approved a $11,800 one-year contract calling for Flock to erect poles and place the solar-powered cameras at four locations.
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DeVries said two of the cameras were planned for West Gunnison Street, pointing east and west, with two more facing north and southbound traffic on North Nagle Avenue.
“Another nice thing is that if there’s an alert for a certain license plate, all the local municipalities using Flock are networked together, which is really beneficial,” DeVries said.
Norridge had three Flock surveillance systems up and running, and planned to install a fourth one.
“We have two on Harlem Avenue around the mall, one on Forest Preserve Drive and a fourth one will be near Cumberland and Lawrence,” Norridge Police Chief Brian Goss said in November. “Our goal is to cover our town’s entrance and exit streets. I’ve been in touch with Chief DeVries and we’re working together to make sure we don’t double-up coverage on any spots.”
According to the company, Flock cameras record images which are then stored on its cloud server for the police department to access.
“The law enforcement agency contracting with us owns the footage, and they’re under the oversight of their city council and any applicable laws,” Flock Safety spokeswoman Holly Beilin said. “Third parties do not have access to the images.”
Last April, the village of Oak Park considered Flock cameras, and two trustees said they had concerns about camera use due to the history of police departments profiling drivers of color. The board ultimately voted to install eight cameras instead of the 20 originally proposed.
Beilin noted the camera software only identifies numbers and other visual data like bumper stickers, car color, vehicle style, dents and distinguishing features on car bodies. She said the cameras cannot identify faces and people.
Harwood Heights Mayor Arlene Jezierny said the cameras in her town will provide the community peace of mind.
“The Flock cameras are going to bring better safety for our residents and to protect our community,” Jezierny said. “Some people get upset about any kind of cameras in the community, but these make people think twice.”
Jezierny and Goss both said the better-known red light cameras in their respective communities will continue to remain in place at intersections.
Beilin said another advantage of Flock surveillance is that it networks with police squad car dash cam systems made by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Axon Enterprise, Inc.
“We had already started using Axon, the best kind of squad car camera,” DeVries said. “When I later found out that Flock cameras can recognize a license plate and send it directly to our squad car computer displays, that’s what sold me on the system.”
DeVries said the Flock network capability makes each of the Harwood Heights squad cars capable of doing mobile license plate recognition.
Goss said Norridge intends to add Axon cameras to its police department.
“Our Flock cameras also integrate with amber and silver alerts,” Beilin said. “If there’s an amber alert for a certain vehicle license plate, our systems will automatically alert law enforcement if that plate is detected. In partnering with Axon, Flock plugs right in with their very effective evidence management system so all images and footage is in one place.”
Beilin said the Flock camera software allows police to search for footage specific to certain vehicle parameters.
“If there’s a retail theft at the mall or in the area, all the victim or witness has to do is give us a rough description of the vehicle — a red truck or a blue sedan — and the system can search and show us every red truck or blue sedan that passed by the Flock camera in a certain time frame,” Goss said. “It can be a search based on a bumper sticker. The artificial intelligence is just amazing.”
Goss said the Norridge expenditure for Flock cameras was around the same $11,800 that Harwood Heights spent on the system. The cost consisted of a $1,800 one-time installation and implementation fee and the $10,000 annual price for equipment usage and software service for four cameras.
“I’ve found out that a lot of other communities around us already use Flock,” Goss said. “It’s all about providing public safety to our residents, and you can’t put a numeric value on that. If we can identify a vehicle associated with a crime that just entered out town, head them off and prevent another crime, that camera just paid for itself.”
Goss said the Norridge Police Department has 38 sworn officers and 22 squad cars. Harwood Heights has 26 officers and 10 police squad cars, DeVries said.
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