Glasgow Police Department Chief Guy Howie discusses how license plate readers such as those provided through Flock Safety work as a tool for law enforcement during a meeting of the Glasgow Common Council Public Safety Committee on Monday just prior to the full council meeting, where the information was also discussed. MELINDA J. OVERSTREET / for Glasgow News 1
By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
The Glasgow Police Department will soon have a new tool it expects to help solve and event prevent crimes in the form of a license plate reader – a camera that zooms in on the back end of a vehicle to get a photo image of the tag and make and model of the vehicle.
The information from that image is then automatically transcribed and stored along with the image in a cloud account that only to be accessed when needed for a specific case. That is, a case number is going to be necessary to do a search for the information.
Mayor Henry Royse stated after a presentation by a representative from Flock Safety and GPD Chief Guy Howie and one of his staff members to the Glasgow Common Council on Monday evening — the same presentation that occurred in the previous hour with the council Public Safety Committee – that it was essentially for informational purposes, as he had already signed off on an authorization for the GPD to order three cameras and enter the agreement necessary to cover use of the software and maintenance of the equipment.
Howie said the cost is $3,000 per camera per year, plus a one-time installation fee, and if anything happens to the equipment, the company repairs or replaces it.
These first three, which are in the GPD’s budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, are intended to be placed at the exits from Burkesville Road and U.S. 31-E onto the Louis B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway and along Ky. 90 at or near the Veterans Outer Loop, the chief said. His goal is to add to the collection as funds permit. Private companies can also sign up with Flock to have one of the cameras on their properties, but they would not have access to the data – only a designated law enforcement agency could do so, so it essentially serves as a donation to the agency but one that could help the agency help the company, especially one, for example, with a lot of shoplifters.
The chief and Amy Cornell, community affairs manager for Flock Safety, repeatedly assured that the cameras will not be used for traffic enforcement purposes, like catching people who run red lights, which Kentucky law forbids, and because it only “shoots” the rear of the vehicle, it doesn’t get faces so there is no personal identifiers. Any information not accessed to be used in a criminal investigation within 30 days is automatically deleted from the system after that time, Cornell said.
“All of the data is owned by the agency, and it’s never sold or shared with a third party by Flock,” she said. It is however, intended to work in conjunction with the National Crime Information Center database and to flag any vehicles for which law enforcement officers are searching.
Cornell said this is not intended to replace any traditional police work but rather to serve as a tool to help them. Several examples were provided of ways it had done so in other locations – some elsewhere in Kentucky and two of which involved finding shooting suspects.
Part of the Flock program is a “transparency portal” that shows the public how the data is used and the policies that dictate those practices, Cornell said, displaying an example on the walls of Council Chambers.
Howie said GPD has had access to the system on a trial basis before having the camera, and Aaron Cowan, a detective sergeant with the department, discussed a couple of ways it’s helped him track down suspects. He had been able to obtain images and the information “dashboard” for his own vehicle from where he drove it in Elizabethtown, which uses Flock already, to show sample images to the committee and the full council.
In addition to E’town, Nelson County – where Bardstown is – is also among the 50-plus locations that also use it, the chief said, and Kentucky State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement cars are equipped with the readers.
City Attorney Rich Alexander said that from the legal standpoint, he had checked on whether it could violate any constitutional rights, and he said that has already been tested in a case that went to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which said the method does not violate individuals’ rights.
Before the full council meeting, the council members on the Public Safety Committee – Freddie Norris, chair, James “Happy” Neal, Patrick Gaunce and Marlin Witcher – had by consensus but no formal vote pledged their support for the idea, which Norris announced to the fellow council members present at the second meeting. Councilwoman Marna Kirkpatrick was absent.
In other business at the full council meeting, annual departmental reports continued and the following action items were approved unanimously among those present:
— First reading of an ordinance permitting Nemak USA a rebate or retention of 1 percent of the 1.75 percent occupational license fee on certain wages paid to new employees added as part of an expansion for a period of 10 years, provided the company gets final approval for and meets the criteria of its application for incentives under the Kentucky Business Investment Program administered by the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority;
— A joint resolution amending an interlocal agreement between the city’s and Barren County’s governments to include additional services to be provided by the county building inspector;
— Second readings of three ordinances that 1) adopt the $29 million proposed budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year, 2) amend the budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and 3) adds the most recent supplement to the city’s published Code of Ordinances.
— A dozen municipal orders making several reappointments to local boards, committees, etc. previously listed here;
— A municipal order appointing Nick Hurt as occupational license fee manager and city alcoholic beverage control administrator effective July 1. Hurt has been working for the city since March 23, training with the soon-to-retire Brandon Kerney, who is currently in that position, and Hurt was also administered the oath of office by Royse during the council meeting.
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