STATEMENT ON WESTERVILLE DIVISION OF POLICE USE OF FLOCK CAMERAS
Holly Murchland, Chief of Police

Flock Safety® Falcon cameras are a public safety product designed for law enforcement and utilized by the Westerville Division of Police (WPD). The system of cameras are installed on public infrastructure (like electric poles) and use License Plate Reader (LPR) technology to alert officers of wanted criminals, stolen vehicles and missing persons.

Flock technology has been associated with locating more than 10,000 missing persons and supporting more than one million criminal investigations across the country. In Westerville, the use of Flock cameras have helped WPD solve numerous violent and serious crimes including:

• Stopped an armed robbery in the parking lot at T-Mobile on S. State St. before the masked suspect entered the building
• Identified the suspect of an Aggravated Menacing complaint. The suspect pointed a gun and threatened another driver in the area of S. State St and Huber Village Blvd.
• Identified and located the vehicle of a suspect who had abducted and assaulted a female victim in the area of W. Main and Collegeview.
• Identified the suspect vehicle used in a Robbery at Kroger on Schrock Rd. This led to the arrest of a subject who was found to have been responsible for multiple robberies in the Central Ohio area.
• Identified the driver of a stolen vehicle who hit and killed a man on Schrock Rd.

Many of these crimes would have most likely remained unsolved without the utilization of FLOCK.

It is important to note:

• Flock LPRs are not mass surveillance tools and are not used for any type of surveillance by WPD. Most data is never accessed and is deleted on a set retention schedule.
• Safeguards and oversight are built into the system architecture. Role-based access controls, audits, retention limits, geofencing, and case-based search requirements are designed to constrain use, support lawful investigations, and balance public safety benefits with civil liberties protections.
• WPD controls its own data, and does not share with federal agencies.

WPD believes this technology is important to uphold the public safety objectives of the community. Please visit police.westerville.org for more information about WPD and our mission.