Four Flock cameras approved by Clawson City Council

CLAWSON — With a swift discussion April 16, four ALPR Flock Safety Falcon cameras were approved by the City Council in a 4-1 vote.

Council member Matthew Binkowski did not vote in favor of the Flock camera system. In an email response, Binkowski said that he voted against the system “as I was concerned about privacy issues as well as potential for abuse. Also, it seemed as though there were little additional benefits for Clawsonites for the yearly outlay of funds that must be expended.”

At the April 2 City Council meeting, Clawson Chief of Police Kellie Bauss presented a proposal for the purchase of the cameras to the council with Flock territory sales manager Michael Dushane.

The four cameras will cost a total of $14,600 in the first year of the contract and $12,000 in the next. The council decided on a two-year contract.

The cameras will be paid for through Clawson’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to City Manager Joe Rheker.

Bauss said the cameras will be placed strategically in the highest-traffic entrance areas to the city of Clawson.

At the April 2 meeting, it was stated that a Flock analyst will be investigating which Clawson roadways have the most people going in and out of the city to determine where the cameras should be located.

Flock cameras are used statewide and have assisted in solving more than 700,000 crimes each year since 2017 in the U.S, according to Police One, a law enforcement resource website.

The Flock Safety Falcon cameras are solar powered and will be placed on a city pole or streetlight at the four entrances, according to a memorandum in the meeting’s agenda packet.

“Flock Safety cameras capture a vehicle’s license plate as it enters a community to provide police with the actionable evidence they need,” the website flocksafety.com states.

The cameras also identify different features of the vehicle even if it does not have a license plate.

“What is unique about Flock is that if a vehicle did not have a license plate, you can still search by unique features such as the make of the vehicle, the color of the vehicle,” Dushane said April 2. “There are a dozen other ones in terms of a roof rack or a bumper sticker or anything that a victim or eyewitness is able to help describe that they saw with that vehicle.”

The cameras are used in communities surrounding Clawson, and according to Bauss, those surrounding cameras have helped Clawson PD solve multiple crimes.

According to the memo, Clawson police were able to work with another jurisdiction to locate and recover a vehicle stolen from Clawson Auto Sales, and to find a suicidal person in need of emergency treatment.

In a recent incident, a press release from April 17 explained how Ferndale police officers were able to arrest a robbery suspect after their Flock Safety license plate recognition cameras alerted the authorities to the wanted vehicle.

The City Council did not have much discussion on the topic April 16. It was verified to the council that if the cameras break or need maintenance, Flock Safety will take care of that.

“They still own the equipment and do the ongoing maintenance of it,” Bauss said. “We own the pole, but it is only if a car runs over the camera and completely destroys it that we have to replace it.”