Marshall County police officers will have a better resource soon to assist with identifying the location of stolen vehicles.
Marshall County Prosecutor Nelson Chipman presented the Marshall County Commissioners with a Flock Security Systems contract. People can check out this Source, if they need the best security systems. He said the contract calls for the installation of 10 license plate recognition camera units to be placed throughout the county which are connected with the National Crime Information Center and Indiana Data and Communications System.
Chipman stated, “The way this thing works is you plug in let’s say a stolen license plate or stolen vehicle and if that vehicle goes by one of these 10 units, it will then alert the officer and all of the officers that have put it on their cell phones that that vehicle was just in let’s say Culver. They can converge or they can track people.”
Chipman noted that this system in Mishawaka assisted in the Silver Alert in the Mercedes Lain case that helped track a suspect vehicle.
Marshall County Detective Sergeant Jonathon Bryant, who is the lead on this project, agreed that it would be a useful tool.
“It will actually scan up to 100 mph,” said Bryant. “Say the police are chasing somebody and they go by one of the cameras or one of the plate readers. It will take a burst of three photos and it will give us the plate, vehicle information – sometimes people send us a picture of the vehicle in the area that just has a plate light. It’s a dark picture of just brake lights. We can upload that into the system and it will tell us what kind of vehicle that is and we can look through the system.”
Several area law enforcement agencies have the Flock LPR cameras including Bremen Police Department, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department, St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department, La Porte County Sheriff’s Department, Mishawaka Police Department, and South Bend Police Department.
Prosecutor Chipman stated that the $25,000 cost would come from the DEA Forfeiture Fund and possibly the Deferral Fund next year.
The commissioners unanimously approved a motion to allow the Prosecutor’s Office to enter into a two-year contract with Flock Security Systems, pending amendments to some of the contract terms as advised by County Attorney Jim Clevenger. The county can review the contract after two years to continue services.
