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In a conversation with Chief Hamblin I commented that facial recognition is just around the corner with the Flock cameras. I showed him some excerpts from their patent filings. He told me that the cameras were all pointed into town and only meant to capture the rear of the vehicle.
Indeed the installation guide seems to confirm this statement. This excerpt from the guide clearly states that the cameras are designed to capture the rear plates. But if this is true, there would only be records of a vehicle entering the town. Consider a vehicle entering town and passing the River Road camera (LPR001). If the vehicle makes a U-turn and again passes LPR001 there is no camera to capture the rear of that vehicle since its front is facing LP001. Consider what happens at the police station if the vehicle was on a hot list. Police are alerted. Following Rangely police protocol, the license plate's existence on the hot list is verified. Resources are now wasted on a search of the vehicle that has left town without leaving a trace. How is that efficient? If that is all true, Rangely's flock cameras are an $18,000 boondoggle 1. But then, there is this email from the Chief discussing the placement of camera LPR003. Clearly there is the expectation that the cameras captures the images of vehicles in both directions 2.
Lets look at one of the patents. These diagrams of figure 1c and figure 4 from patent 11,030,892 B1 show the front of a vehicle being captured and analysed. The text at column 5, lines 34-46 of the disclosure state:
The lens 310 may help capture images of a vehicle 120 that may have a license plate 115 having license plate data 117. According to the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1C, the vehicle 120 may comprise a van but other vehicles 120 are possible and are included within the scope of this disclosure. Other vehicles 120 include, but are not limited to, automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, trains, planes, helicopters, etc. The license plate data 117 may comprise data such as numbers, letters, colors, symbols, graphical elements, and/or any combination thereof. According to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1C, the license plate data 117 comprises the data of, “ABCD-1234” as its combination of letters and numbers.
Then there is this. When questioned about the payment to Flock at a July Town Council Meeting, the topic is quickly brushed off, but not before the Town Manager comments about what the cameras do.
Up jumps the devil! Listen to proof that Flock does capture the front of vehicles going out of town.
Clearly Flock is looking at vehicles coming into and going out of town. The cameras are capturing the front of the vehicles as they leave and the dispatchers 3 are using those images. In another example where a woman was FALSELY accused of stealing a package in Columbine Valley, the officer knows both the times and dates of her vehicle entering and leaving.
1 Although the 2025 budget shows $9000 for license plate readers, the contract is for 2 years. The proposed 2026 budget does not list license plate readers, so the second year's payment will come out of some general fund.
2 Because the camera is pointed into town, the rear of vehicles headed West into town passing camera 003 at Shale drive are captured. The front of vehicles heading out of town going East past camera 003 at Shale Drive are captured.
3 Actual recordings of the Rangely dispatch on three different occasions.
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