Centennial Airport stolen vehicle crash highlights the case of Colorado Sheriff for herd cameras

A sheriff in Colorado expresses his concern about the ability to catch car thieves after the city has decided not to continue the use of herd cameras.

In the late Wednesday evening, the deputies of the Sheriff of Douglas County followed one stolen vehicle This ended with a crash at the Centennial Airport. The incident is one of many examples of law enforcement agencies in the entire state that, with the help of Flock cameras, catches suspects that take photos of number plates that drive past.

On Monday, the city council of Denver unanimously rejected A two-year expansion of the flock security program, in which the readers of license plates along streets across Denver were placed. The members named data protection concerns and potential options for abuse as reasons.

Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly should only be for those who violate the law.

“I had the system yesterday, about every five or ten minutes, I had a warning message that we had a problem,” said Weekly.

The Sheriff calls the technology a game changer and deals with Denvers latest decision not to extend your contract to keep it.

“So that Denver no longer uses this technology, you may influence the entire rest of the U -Bahn area in Denver and our ability to solve crimes in our jurisdiction,” said Weekly. “It's a black hole for law enforcement.”

Jurisdiction across the state can access the database to catch suspects for crimes.

“Criminals speak. You not only talk about where the law enforcement authorities are pursuing you or more aggressive in terms of our ability to catch you. You also talk about who has readers of license plates and who has no license plate readers. They plan this.”

This technology alerts the law enforcement authorities when a vehicle connected to a crime drives with a herd camera. A photo of the vehicle and its license plate and a PIN loads up on a map of the location.

The deputy who receives the warning would then have to access an additional state computer database in order to obtain further information, e.g. B. for who is registered the vehicle.

“Nobody grabs this information without knowing it. You have to have a case number or articulate your reasons for access to the information, but you also have to watch another database to find out what you actually have. This information is not available on the system itself,” said Weekly.

In addition to general data protection concerns, the members of the city council fear that the information could be shared with ICE. But both the Denver Police Department and Sheriff Weekly say that this does not happen.

“We have never given any information and they never asked for it,” said Weekly. “There is absolutely no facial recognition that is connected with it. This only searches plates and vehicle descriptions. That is.”

A member of the city council of Denver announced CBS Colorado that the city council is now working on a regulation that rules the surveillance technology. The belief is that the mayor's office wants to continue to use this type of technology under the protection of a regulation.