Flock cameras in Grover Beach have been around for longer than you might think. The police department started using these in 2022, making this year the fourth year they’ve been using the technology. They said the impact it's had on public safety is immeasurable.
On August 17, 2023, a Grover Beach convenience store clerk was shot during an attempted robbery. Chief Jim Munro from the Grover Beach Police Department was at the scene.
“We did not know who this person was,” he said.
Munro said his department quickly turned to its new technology.
"We went to the community cameras, and we went to our license plate cameras,” he said. “Within seconds, we had a license plate of the suspect.”
The Flock cameras, which are designed primarily to pick up license plates, were installed nearly four years ago.
Grover Beach police have used the high-tech tools many times since then. Twice just last weekend.
“There was a domestic violence suspect that was recently arrested using license plate readers,” Munro said. “Once we get that alert, we can then quickly direct our resources to that location.”
Munro said the department is selective about when it utilizes the cameras.
“We try and keep the system to folks that are wanted for crimes, so misdemeanors or felonies or any other case that would help for a peaceful type resolution,” he said.
They're reserved primarily for tracking vehicles believed to be tied to serious crimes, such as robberies, kidnappings or missing person cases.
“Those that have not paid their vehicle registration… those records are not even in the system,” Munro said. “Those that are maybe late on parking fines or anything like that, that would probably quite honestly overwhelm us and we're not interested in that.”
There are 17 Flock cameras at different locations throughout the city.
It costs Grover Beach police $3,000 to run each camera annually, quickly adding to over $51,000 a year.
“Right now, these cameras are funded through a federal grant, which is nice," Munro said. "If we intend to keep them after the grant expires, that will be a city expense coming out of the general fund and we'll make that decision when the time comes.”
Munro said after the grant runs out in 2027, they plan to discuss continuing to use Flock with the city council.
The chief walked us through how the cameras work.
"This is literally all we get,” Munro said. “We get two pictures, a license plate and a picture of a car. Every now and then, there'll be a better picture. It’s usually the front of a vehicle, depending on which way they're going or the back of a vehicle, depending on which way they're going, and it's just the license.”
Grover Beach police have only entered 19 license plates since 2022.
However, they do receive notices when other state law enforcement agencies with Flock cameras input plates into the system.
Munro emphasized that data is only shared with California agencies, and not with the federal government, specifically not with ICE.
The information that is collected does not last long.
Flock spokesman Paris Lewbell said everything automatically gets wiped from storage every 30 days.
“The data is completely encrypted throughout the entire process,” Lewbell said. “So, when the picture is taken, it's encrypted at the actual device. It's encrypted in transit to the servers, and then it's encrypted there on the servers as well.”
Lewbel said the data from Grover Beach stays in Grover Beach unless the police department chooses to share it with other agencies or Flock itself. He said the data can be accessed by Flock on rare occasions, like if there was an IT problem or an agency let them use the data for training purposes.
“Agencies own 100% of their data, so Flock itself doesn't own any of that data," Lewbel said. "We can't give it away, so it's really in the hands of the agency on what they do with that data.”
There are also tight controls within the police department, according to the chief.
Advisors can go in at any time and see who's accessing the information and why.
"We don't get any personal identifying information at all,” Munro said. “These cameras are here to help keep them, our officers and just our community as a whole, safe."
Flock cameras aren’t the only surveillance equipment in Grover Beach. The city also uses community cameras, which are more similar to motion-capture security cameras.
