WAGONER COUNTY, Okla. — Flock Safety Cameras have been popping up in communities across Eastern Oklahoma.
By the end of the year, you could see them in Wagoner County. Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott says after seeing the success the Tulsa Police Department has had with the Flock Safety Cameras, he's decided to bring them to his jurisdiction.
The county will install 10 cameras as part of a beta test. The cameras take still pictures of passing vehicles. They can detect the color, make and model of the car, the license plate, and even something unique to the vehicle like a bumper sticker.
Elliott says the cameras won't just help crack down on stolen vehicles or property theft, he says it can help with Amber and Silver alerts.
"Think about this for a minute... Your child or grandchild gets kidnapped out of your front yard, and we manage to get a vehicle description, we can go in and search that, and it's real-time data," Elliot said.
Elliott says if the test cameras prove to be successful, the sheriff's office will ask the county to pay for 10 cameras to begin with. Then, he says he will encourage citizens to look into buying their own Flock cameras.
"Anybody that wants to can purchase one of these cameras and it all goes in the same system."
Kevin Tillman lives in Wagoner County in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Coweta. He was one of several people from the neighborhood who spoke with Sheriff Elliott about the flock cameras. He says he and his neighbors would be interested in buying a Flock camera for the neighborhood.
"We need to ask questions from the Flock folks, we need to look at the fine print, but it's something we are very interested in," Tillman said.
Since the cameras have been installed in counties across Eastern Oklahoma, some do question the "big brother" aspect. The Sheriff says these cameras don't infringe upon people's privacy but keep an eye on the community.
"The world that we live in right now is a world full of technology," says Sheriff Elliott. "There's cameras everywhere. It's the world we live in and want to make this world safer, and we want to use this technology to make this world safer."
The Wagoner County Sheriff's Office says they will hopefully begin installing the Flock cameras in December.
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