LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The updated statistics are in, and they show exactly how Flock license plate readers set up around Lexington have been helping the Lexington Police Department.
As of Wednesday, there have been 283 stolen vehicles recovered, 305 warrants and subpoenas served, 83 firearms seized, 105 investigation leads, 22 missing people located, and 513 individuals charged. Lexington police posted these stats and more from when the license plate reader cameras were installed.
Lexington Police’s Commander of Special Investigations, Matthew Greathouse, says, "That's a success story, that technology is being used to help develop leads into a case."
This week alone LPD's Commander Greathouse explains that the technology has helped in two cases. One case led to the arrest of a man involved in a shooting on North Broadway earlier in June and a shooting on Winchester Road on Tuesday.
"Through that, we were able to identify a tag with a vehicle. And we were able to get that information out to all of our officers in the city. Unfortunately we didn't find that person here -- but what's great throughout this flock network and our camera sharing with our other law enforcement agencies is we're able to locate that person in Berea, contact our other law enforcement partners down there and have that person in custody within an hour of the shooting, and bring them back here to answer questions,” explains Commander Greathouse.
Right now, there are 100 cameras set up across Lexington. At the beginning of the new fiscal year, which begins in July, 25 more cameras will be added.
Mayor Linda Gorton says, "In this upcoming new budget, 56% of the budget is dedicated to public safety and every city that wants to be a great city should do that."
Police explain that the cameras aren't traffic cameras and aren't monitored around the clock. Everything is monitored at LPD’s Real-Time Intelligence Center. They only watch these cameras on active calls of service or past incidents where evidence is needed.
Cameras are placed around the city based on crime data.
Greathouse says, "When we deployed our cameras in 2022, we looked at the reported violent crime, took all officer-initiated crime, this was specifically crimes of people calling the police department asking for help in violent situations. That's where we mapped our first 100 cameras."
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Now that police have seen the technology’s capabilities, they're looking to expand.
"Last year, we had over 400 firearms that were stolen from vehicles, well those firearms are immediately going right into the violent crime circles, and we needed to do something to try to curb that. So, what we've done is we've added that crime and a few other small crimes into our crime data that we know are driving our violent crime and then we are going to expand out,” says Commander Greathouse.
Lexington Police have a program in place where you can get involved in improving the city's safety stats, too, online at www.ConnectLex.org. Lexington residents and businesses have the option to register camera systems at their homes or businesses for free. You can also subscribe to integrate your cameras with the police department in case of an emergency nearby. More information and resources on license plate reader cameras can be found here.
