Kent City Council is poised to approve a three-year, $126,000 contract for 14 license plate readers to be placed downtown and at city limits.
Flock Safety’s video technology would track vehicle license plates as they pass by the cameras. Not livestream technology, it is a continuous series of snapshots that is uploaded to a database police can then search by punching in a vehicle’s make, color, decals or other identifying information, Police Chief Nicholas Shearer told council members during their April 2 committee session.
Police initiating a search can, but do not have to, enter the vehicle’s license plate, Shearer told council members. Instead, the technology zeroes in on vehicles that match the officer’s search parameters and captures the license plate associated with that vehicle. The technology does not capture drivers’ identities, Shearer told council.
Kent police who wish to search Flock’s nationwide network would have to provide an on-record reason for each search, and Shearer said he would regularly audit those records. He also assured council members that he personally would determine which external agencies would be provided with Kent’s information.
Without specifying where all the cameras would be, Shearer said one would be by West Main Street and Deidrick Road, and another would be placed on Fairchild Avenue by Newcomer Road. Combined with Stow’s already-installed Flock cameras, all vehicles entering and leaving Stow will be documented, he said.
Shearer noted that all entrances and exits to the city would be covered, and that additional cameras would be placed in “strategic areas” downtown. The cameras would be affixed to existing roadside poles, but if a pole does not exist, Flock Safety would erect one, Shearer said.
The motion-activated cameras take multiple snapshots of vehicles’ license plates. Vehicles associated with criminal activity or missing persons would be tagged in Flock’s nationwide network, and nearby Flock communities would receive alerts that those vehicles are approaching jurisdictional limits.
Lauding Flock’s policies related to data security and protecting private information, Shearer told The Portager that the cameras aren’t intended to surveil people. The cameras will alert police when a vehicle associated with criminal activity or missing persons enters the city, giving police the ability to respond to specific areas in a timely manner.
“I think this is a great investigative resource,” he said. “It’s a tool we can use to keep our community safe.”
Locally, Stow, Ravenna, Brimfield, Tallmadge and Aurora already use Flock technology. They — and potentially Kent — funnel data into Flock’s nationwide system.
With Flock technology, if a car was involved in an incident, but police only knew the approximate time and that a small blue car was involved, police could at least narrow down the possibilities by zeroing in on a 15-minute window on the nearest cameras, Shearer said.
If witnesses could recall a bumper sticker on the vehicles, dents, writing or decals on the back windows, that provides further identification criteria and could lead police closer to possible suspects, he said.
Shearer said the cameras would not be used to catch speeders, and do not constitute a “big brother” situation. The cameras are not capable of measuring speed or informing traffic violations, he said.
The company states that its license plate reader cameras can be quickly installed, have no utility costs and provide a swift return on investment.
Shearer said the city had trial-basis access to Flock’s nationwide database for three months in 2024. During that time, he credited Flock’s nationwide network with solving robberies at downtown vape shops and the theft of materials from a local asphalt, ready-mix concrete and construction paving contractor.
Flock cameras have also led police to Cleveland, where cars stolen locally were located, and to Cortland, where a local missing person was located, he said.
If Kent had had Flock cameras and been hooked into the company’s nationwide network, a month-long search for a man convicted in the 2023 fatal shooting of a woman in a South Water Street apartment could have been solved in a day, he said.
Instead, the man was located in Texas and had to be extradited to Ohio, where Portage County Common Pleas Court Judge Laurie Pittman sentenced him to four life terms in prison without possibility of parole, plus 17 to 22.5 years. The case is now being heard in the 11th District Court of Appeals.
Some council members were concerned that Flock’s offer to waive a $650-per-camera implementation fee if council acts quickly amounted to high-pressure sales tactics. Shearer focused on the Kent’s opportunity to save upwards of $9,000.
His ask for 14 cameras translates to an annual lease and software service cost of $42,000, or $3,000 per camera per year. Dollars are to be drawn from federal, state and city forfeiture funds, which are filled with money that courts have seized from people convicted of criminal activity. Kent’s forfeiture fund more than covers the three-year contract, Shearer said.
Should council approve a contract with Flock Safety, it would take six to eight weeks to install the cameras and render them operational, City Manager Dave Ruller said. Even then, the first few months would constitute a “trial period” during which the city could change its mind without penalty.
Ruller and Shearer also appeared willing to accept Flock Safety’s offer of a public education program aimed at gaining the public’s trust in the new technology. Neither offered any details as to what that campaign might look like, but said council’s quick sign-on would leave eight to 10 weeks for the PR program.
Council is poised to authorize the contract without an emergency clause that could stall final approval for up to three months, but members noted that the proposed legislation could be amended to include the clause at any time.
Ravenna Police Chief Jeff Wallis credits that city’s 10 Flock cameras for the arrest of a man at his Twinsburg home.
In that incident, Ravenna police responded to an Aug. 11, 2024, 911 hangup call originating on Madison Street, where residents allegedly reported hearing loud popping noises. Police found several shell casings in a driveway where two vehicles showed evidence of gunshots.
Akron police and the U.S. Marshals Service ultimately arrested the 19-year-old male suspect in Twinsburg, where Flock cams singled out his vehicle. Pre-trial is set for next month In Portage County Common Pleas Court.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.