BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — The Broken Arrow Police Department is preparing to use Flock cameras. Tuesday night, the city council approved five cameras, which will be placed around the city – the chief of police says it’s like having more staff.
Catoosa is one of the Green Country communities where the cameras are already in use. Catoosa’s cams were in the spotlight Thursday after the crash on I-44 near the Hard Rock.
The cameras alerted police officers to the car, linked to an Illinois quadruple homicide case.
"Maybe helps the public understand just a little bit, this is what we use these cameras for: criminals. We're not wanting to deal with people’s day-to-day business. We don’t care," said Ronnie Benight, the chief of Catoosa police.
Broken Arrow will become the latest agency to use flock cameras. It's all part of their effort to stay on the cutting edge of police technology.
"This is another one of those points in policing where it’s transformative. Where we’re able to maximize our number of staffing levels by augmenting it with electronic verification," said Brandon Berryhill, Chief of Broken Arrow police.
The Chief tells us they plan to put their flock cameras at some major intersections within the city as well as some of Broken Arrow’s major shopping districts.
We met Amber Lindsey, shopping with her friend in Broken Arrow’s Rose District.
"I just love the community, and I just like the atmosphere," Lindsey said.
An atmosphere, she says, is "quiet" and "family-oriented," thanks to Broken Arrow’s sense of safety, which could be heightened with the cameras.
Chief Berryhill says they will install five cameras for a trial period. They won’t respond to every single notification, only the ones that are vetted and worthwhile.
"Just because you have access to, you know, a hundred cameras doesn’t mean they’re effective. Just building something doesn’t make sense, but building something that’s effective makes good sense," Berryhill said.
2 News Oklahoma's Samson Tamijani contributed to this report.
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