During the community conversations event at the Yelm Community Center earlier this month, the Yelm Police Department’s Assistant Chief Tillman Atkins told community members in attendance that the agency is working to secure four additional Flock Safety cameras to deploy around Yelm.
The department currently uses four Flock Safety cameras at a cost of $3,500 apiece. The city currently spends $14,000 annually on the public safety equipment, and with the addition of four more cameras, the cost would double.
YPD recently utilized the technology to identify a vehicle’s license plate number and find potential witnesses after a shooting in a parking lot on Thursday, Feb. 6, at Yelm’s Sea Mar Community Health Center. According to Atkins, the technology has solved at least 15 to 20 crimes in Yelm.
The cameras are placed strategically around town and record license plate numbers and vehicle information from passing traffic. Law enforcement is able to access the recordings and data after a crime has taken place to identify suspects and vehicles.
“With the shooting situation, Flock was instrumental in that,” Atkins said. “It wasn’t just instrumental in seeing the vehicle and figuring out the vehicle, but we also found witnesses that night from the camera system. If you look at the cars that had driven by in a certain amount of time, we were about to locate a couple of witnesses, went to their residences and they were willing to talk and give our detectives some information. With that, we found the plate number of the vehicle and realized where it was located.”
Atkins added that the suspect’s vehicle had an AT&T wireless card for a cellphone, and that the “fancy feature” allowed for YPD to gain a search warrant for the vehicle. This allowed for YPD to receive a ping of the vehicle’s exact location. YPD Chief Rob Carlson said once the vehicle was identified, police officers were able to begin tracking the vehicle’s routine around Yelm.
“After the vehicle was found, we then found a tracking of the vehicle because it would go in and out of camera constantly. We found when it would leave and come back into Yelm,” Carlson said. “When it came back into Yelm, it never left, so we knew it was in town. That pinging piece was dialed in, and that technology helped us for sure. I found it to be really cool.”
During the meeting, Atkins said the Flock Safety cameras will take pictures of vehicle’s license plates to “basically fingerprint” the rear end of the vehicle to learn the make and model, the color and other information.
“What it does is go through a database. A car goes in front of it, and if there’s a stolen vehicle, it will alert our officers immediately and let them know where it’s at. Within a second or two, the alert will come through so they can go to the area and look for the stolen vehicle. They can use it for investigation processes, which is what we’re most excited about. It’s been very beneficial to our officers, and the city especially, including citizens and business owners,” Atkins said. “The Flock system is located in four spots throughout the city. We’re going to add four more to bring us to eight total cameras around the city. What the Flock system does is take photos of license plates. It has vehicle identification AI software that can basically fingerprint the rear of the vehicle to determine needed information — even if there’s no plate attached to the car.”
According to the assistant chief, YPD officers are very vigilant about using the Flock Safety camera system. He described it as a great tool for officers, and said as technology continues to progress, YPD will continue to obtain and utilize these tools.
“The Flock system has 100%, hands down, been the best system that we’ve had to date,” Atkins said.
The assistant chief noted there’s a strict policy regarding use of the Flock Safety camera system, stating the only way officers can search for a vehicle is if there’s a case number associated, or if there’s a crime that’s being investigated.
“That is audited. We are audited all the time. If there is an officer that is randomly running plates, we’ll be notified immediately,” Atkins said. “It’s not just for crime either. It’s not just for arresting people. It holds Silver Alerts and Amber Alerts. So if we get a Silver Alert, you’ve seen them on I-5 up and down, if someone does drive through Yelm, we will be alerted immediately and the officers will be able to assist in figuring out that situation. It’s not just about crime. There’s a lot of aspects to it that benefit us.”
“We own the information that’s possessed by the cameras, but Flock owns the cameras and all of the poles and utilities that go with it,” he said. “The nice part for us and the city is if we have a camera go down and it’s not working properly, they immediately come out and fix it. They also monitor it, so if it’s not reading correctly, they’ll know before we know.”
