The Vallejo Police Department (VPD) is pleased to announce its partnership with the Atlanta-based start-up company Flock Safety to bring new License Plate Readers (LPRs) to the City of Vallejo. Flock Safety provides advanced and affordable security solutions for law enforcement agencies, neighborhoods and small businesses alike. VPD has strategically placed the cameras throughout the city as an investigative tool to help solve and combat crime.
The evidence gathering technology captures license plates and car descriptions with a robust back-end feature that allows users to track relevant data and trends in real-time. For example, if a vehicle is reported as stolen and drives by one of these cameras, the department receives an instant notification and vehicle description; usually within seconds.
Flock Safety started in 2017 and built its first LPR camera specifically for neighborhoods with privacy-first policies in mind. The footage is securely stored to an online cloud and automatically deletes every 30 days on a rolling basis. The cameras are not used for traffic enforcement and do not include facial recognition technology.
“This LPR technology is essential to our departments 21st Century policing vision of addressing crime in the City of Vallejo,” Chief of Police Shawny Williams stated. “We are confident that this partnership with Flock Safety will serve as a valuable benefit to both our department and Community.”
Currently, the City of Vallejo has one neighborhood using the LPR cameras. The goal is to encourage more neighborhoods to use the information sharing and evidence collection tool. The cameras can assist in solving property crimes, recovering stolen vehicles, and may also be used as hotlist alerts for wanted persons. VPD also believes this tool will be useful in cases like Amber and Silver alerts.
“Our mission is to eliminate crime,” said Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety. “We believe everyone has the right to public safety and cost-effective tools to solve and deter crimes and we’re proud to work with the Vallejo Police Department to make the area even safer.”
Flock Safety cameras are also being used by neighborhoods in multiple California cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Hemet, and Ontario. Today, Flock Safety cameras provide evidence for more than 300 police agencies to solve crime in 700 cities across the country.
For more information about Flock Safety, please visit www.flocksafety.com. For media inquiries, please contact Public Information Officer, Brittany K. Jackson by email at VallejoPolicePIO@ cityofvallejo.net. or by phone at (707) 651-7147.