Flock camera system coming to Homewood Police Department

The Homewood Police Department soon will add another tool to its arsenal to help prevent crime.

The Homewood City Council recently approved the purchase of a Flock camera system that captures images from people’s license plates and tries to recognize vehicles.

The product allows police to search recorded images of vehicle license plates, partial plates, states, vehicle body types, vehicle make or vehicle colors. The product captures vehicles with or without license plates and coming or going from the designated target area, Homewood police Sgt. John Carr said.

In a month span during last year’s trial session, Carr said about 1 million license plates were scanned and uniquely identified with about 3,400 image captures. The system can be utilized in a number of cases, including stolen cars, Amber Alerts and missing persons, Carr said.

It also allows police departments to share information with neighboring agencies, he said. Almost all the police departments in the Birmingham metro area use it, and there are more than 8,400 community-shared cameras in the United States, he said.

Flock is used in Jefferson, Blount, Cullman, St. Clair, Shelby, Tuscaloosa and Walker counties, and 19 of the 26 cities in Jefferson County use it, Carr said.

The device allows the owner to create custom alerts for their needs, Carr said.

“During the test session last year, the cameras were very helpful,” he said. “For example, we were able to increase the number of recovered stolen vehicles than before the cameras were operational.”

The cameras help officers identify suspect vehicles used in a crime and are frequently used during major crime investigations, he said.

The initial cost for the system in fiscal 2022 is $13,750, with an annual cost of $12,500 after this year, Carr said.