Kudos are certainly due to Elizabethtown Police Chief Tony Parish, as well as Town Manager Dane Rideout — so we will be more than happy to supply those.
Earlier this year, Parrish was researching a relatively new crime-fighting effort called Flock Safety (the complete story is on our website and in the June 1 print edition). The premise is really quite simple. Flock Safety provides a community — county, city or town — with a specific number of cameras, as requested by the entity. Those cameras are then focused on “watching” as vehicles pass by.
The same program is being used nearby in Pembroke and Fairmont, as well as 1,400 communities across the country.
Day or night, photographs of vehicles and the significant differences they may have — license plate, dents, bumper stickers, roof racks, brush guards, etc. — are taken every split second. That information is stored by Flock Safety for 30 days and can be accessed by local law enforcement in cases where a vehicle was used during any kind of crime.
Not only that, but the cameras in use in other locations can assist law enforcement in tracking a known vehicle — even through other states by sending alerts to the local agency.
We will emphasize that these cameras and images are NOT and will NOT be used to catch speeders or any other such minimal infractions. They are ONLY used to spot vehicles know to be used in a crime.
As any police chief should, Parrish wasn’t going to let his initial research sway him. So he scheduled a demonstration — and was then immediately sold.
That’s when he approached Rideout with the idea of getting Flock Safety to help the town. The cost: $24,700.
Rideout gave Parrish as hearty of a thumbs-up as he could with just one caveat: Find a way to pay for it.
Parrish did. He knocked on the doors of town business owners and leaders and soon had enough to pay for the first year of a two-year contract with Flock Safety. Tremendous kudos to those who agreed, as well.
And now, nine Flock Safety cameras have been installed and are operating.
That’s not the best news, however.
The cameras have already been instrumental in solving a number of crimes, missing persons, wanted persons and more.
Parrish said he wants to send an emphatic message: Criminals shouldn’t come to Elizabethtown, because they will be caught.
It would be difficult to find anything negative about the Flock Safety cameras that are providing Elizabethtown with a 24/7 eye on the comings and goings at strategic spots of the town.
We again applaud Parrish, Rideout and those who supplied the funding. Elizabethtown will be better for it.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Law enforcement must be given every tool available to protect its citizens …”