Lorain council approves license plate readers

LORAIN — Lorain will be the latest city in the county to get license plate readers, following Council approval Monday evening. City Council approved a $531,500, five-year contract with Flock Safety for 40 license plate readers. The contract was passed with an emergency clause, allowing it to go into effect once it passes Board of Control. During Monday's Council meeting, Mayor Jack Bradley said Police Chief Jim McCann originally requested American Rescue Plan Act funds for 10 officers — but in looking at his budget and staffing levels, only needed the federal relief funds for six of those salaries and wanted to use the rest for the license plate readers. McCann noted the readers are not cameras, and only read license plates and send back data if a car is connected to a crime or is stolen. Under the agreement with Flock Safety, the city will pay for the first four years of the contract up front, and hold the last year's worth of funding in Building, Housing and Planning to be able to use the ARPA funds by the federal deadline. According to Flock Safety's website, the Falcon model camera the city plans to purchase can capture a vehicle's make, model, bumper stickers or decals and other identifiable features, along with a full, partial or missing license plate. It can capture information of vehicles traveling up to 100 mph, according to the website. The city would be leasing the readers from Flock Safety; the Georgia-based company would be responsible for installation and upkeep. "They're not cameras, they're not red light cameras, they're not speed cameras," McCann said. They're allocated for one thing only: license plate readers." Later he noted, "If we have a murder suspect in a known vehicle, we can enter that data into the Flock system and it goes to every single Flock system in the United States. … It's not someone's sitting there watching a video camera. It's only monitored when you have to enter stuff in or take stuff out or when something pops up that's already in the system." Rey Carrion, D-6th Ward, said Flock Safety had been used in other cities successfully and was supportive of its use in Lorain. "I think that's what we've talked about for years — to make this city safer we need to have the tools," he said. The measure passed 10-1 Monday, with Victoria Kempton, D-2nd Ward, voting against it. On Tuesday, she said the software is invasive and should have gone to committee or a public meeting, as it will affect every resident in the city. She also had concerns with whether the city would be liable if the data held by the company was impacted by a breach. "I also worry about, if federal authorities would ask for information, what is our responsibility to give them this information, including organizations like ICE," she said. "We were not really given any clear information." On Tuesday, Bradley said the only way a citizen's license plate would be logged by the reader is if the plate was entered into the system's database as a stolen vehicle, or one involved in a crime, noting it's not tracking every single license plate driving past. "It doesn't affect random citizens, it only affects people that have been put into a police database," he said. He said agencies across the country using the Flock Safety system will have access to its license plate database, so if a crime is committed elsewhere and someone comes to Lorain, or vice versa, the police department would be notified. The program would only be scanning for license plates, not occupants of vehicles, Bradley said. "There's 134 cities that have the Flock system. Amherst is getting it, Avon Lake's getting it, Avon, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo, Akron," McCann said during Monday's meeting. "It's just another way to network between departments to help us find criminals. Criminals don't stay in Lorain, criminals go everywhere. And I think you're going to see a lot of good results coming from this." Avon Lake installed Flock Safety license plate readers in April 2022. It's four cameras are positioned on roadways entering the city: along state Route 83 near Avon Lake's southern border; Lear Road near the southern border; Moore Road near the southern border; and Lake Road near the western border. At the time, Avon Lake Police Lt. Sean Bockelman said officers will have to verify the plate run by the camera before taking enforcement action, noting data from the camera will not be considered probable cause for a traffic stop. In Elyria, City Council approved a $1.1 million contract with Centrac software for traffic monitoring software and cameras, as well as license plate recognition for the outskirts of the city. On Tuesday, Safety/Service Director Matt Lundy said they have yet to be operational and there is no timeline on when the six readers in the city's possession could go online. In Medina County, Medina City Council approved Flock Safety cameras in 2021 — spending $52,500 for a two-year contract. Using the database created by the readers would require a legitimate reason, Medina Police Chief Edward Kinney told The Medina-Gazette at the time. Bradley did not immediately know where the readers may be placed in the city, or how soon they could be installed. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.