PAXTON — For the last week or so, automated license-plate-reading cameras have been snapping photos of the rear registration plates of all vehicles entering Paxton from the west or east using Illinois 9 or from the north or south using U.S. 45.
The cameras’ installation — part of a $22,600 two-year contract with Atlanta-based Flock Safety — began in April when the first was installed on Illinois 9 just east of Stockholm Road on the Ford County community’s east edge. The process culminated about two weeks ago with the installation of the remaining three — one on Illinois 9 just east of the offramp from northbound Interstate 57 on the city’s west side, one on U.S. 45 just north of the Paxton Police Department on the city’s north edge and one on U.S. 45 just south of Green Street on the city’s south edge — followed a week later by all four being put into use for the first time.
With the cameras’ installation, all of the main entrances into town are equipped with the technology — which can be used by Paxton police in both real-time and followup investigations — and only a few other entrances into town, all far less traveled, remain without them.
“They’re up on every entrance,” said Paxton Police Chief Coy Cornett, whose agency has already found value in the new crime-fighting tool.
“We’ve used them multiple times,” he said. “We’ve gotten some use out of them already.”
This is one of Paxton’s four solar-powered, motion-activated Flock Safety license-plate-reading cameras. It is located on the south side of Illinois 9 just east of the offramp from northbound Interstate 57 on the city’s west side. The cameras capture still images of the rear license plates of vehicles as they enter town and alert on-duty police within seconds whenever one appears in criminal databases. In January, the city council approved spending $22,600 under an initial two-year contract with Atlanta-based Flock Safety for the installation and maintenance of the cameras.
The solar-powered, motion-activated Flock Safety cameras take photos of the rear of each passing vehicle, including every rear license plate, and alert on-duty police within seconds whenever one appears in criminal databases as being associated with a crime, for example, or a missing or wanted person. Police can then intercept the vehicle or alert other agencies in the area.
In addition to reading license plates, the cameras tag unique features of a vehicle, such as a bumper sticker or a ladder rack, along with its make and model, in a searchable database. The camera data can be valuable in followup investigations, such as when trying to identify a vehicle involved in a crime. The data is encrypted and stored for only 30 days, at which point it is automatically permanently deleted from the system and no longer retrievable unless retained by police as evidence.
Cornett said the value of Paxton’s four plate-reading cameras has already shown in their recent use in investigations into stolen vehicles out of nearby Iroquois County, for example, and the whereabouts of an elderly dementia patient who had taken off in a vehicle in Ford County. Just recently, they were used to identify and later arrest the driver of a motorcycle who fled Paxton police, reaching speeds in excess of 35 mph above the limit, while the cameras captured images of his Harley-Davidson’s registration plate.
“We’ve used it whenever we’re having an investigation,” Cornett said.
Flock Safety has already brought its license-plate-reading cameras to nearly 150 other towns in Illinois — including nearby Rantoul, Champaign and Mahomet — and more than 2,000 nationally. In Rantoul, which has more than 25 plate license-plate readers, the technology has helped police solve a number of crimes, including multiple shootings.
Prior to the Paxton City Council’s approval of the two-year contract with Flock Safety in January, Cornett noted that crimes across the region and nation are being solved on a daily basis using the cameras.
“We’ve had multiple opportunities where we could have used this information just within this last month — one today,” Cornett told the council in January. “A person got scammed out of $4,500 today, and we actually know what kind of vehicle (the suspect was driving), but you can’t see the plate number. If we would have had this in place, we would have had that vehicle.”
Mayor Bill Ingold said in January that license-plate-reading cameras also could have come in handy when he and the chief were notified about a month earlier of a man who was targeting a “specific type of business” for robberies. A letter they received contained the man’s picture, type of vehicle and license plate number, Ingold said, and asked police to be on the lookout.
“If we would have had this system, we would have been able to dial that in and be on the lookout,” Ingold said in January. “As it was, we just had to surveil that one type of business more than we normally would in hopes of getting that person. The robbery never occurred, but that would have been one thing that would have been of help to us.”
The cameras do not read or record a vehicle’s speed. Nor do they record video or capture images of passing vehicles’ drivers or passengers. Nor do police stop a vehicle just because of an alert from one of the cameras, as officers must first confirm probable cause through the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System, just as they always would.
In addition to installing the cameras and providing data storage, Flock Safety provides camera maintenance and upgrades under its contract with the city.
