Flock cameras help Fort Worth police keep eye on city

The Fort Worth Police Department has installed 170 Flock cameras throughout the city to act as an eyewitness and provide leads for law enforcement investigations, according to a city news release.

Besides the 170 cameras, Fort Worth police also has access to privately owned Flock cameras that are located in and around the city of Fort Worth.

The specifics: According to the news release, Flock Safety is a company that builds both hardware and software designed to have an impact on crime. Specifics of the Flock camera network include:

• Cameras were funded through a variety of sources, including the general fund, the Crime Control & Prevention District, public improvement districts and neighborhood improvement strategies.
• Some of these cameras are purchased by private businesses, homeowner associations and neighboring cities that share access with the police department.
• Access is granted to the department from the owner groups of these cameras.

Zooming in: According to the news release, Flock cameras are high-definition fixed cameras that are focused on lanes of traffic.

• The camera captures the characters of the license plate passing through its field of view.
• The characters are then processed through an algorithm to determine the license plate number and licensing state.
• That information is then checked against a database of vehicles that are wanted for a law enforcement purpose.
• If a vehicle is wanted on the list, an alert is sent to the members on the account for potential law enforcement actions.

According to the news release, Flock cameras are monitored by the Real Time Crime Center for vehicles that are stolen, wanted for warrants or suspected vehicles in an ongoing investigation. Additionally, the information is used to identify vehicles that pass through the cameras that may be connected to reported crimes from active nearby incidents.