AKRON, Ohio — Even though some people oppose Flock Safety cameras, police in Medina and Akron said the technology is proving its value after it recently helped officers find missing and endangered people in two separate incidents.
About a week ago, a woman called Akron Police to report that her 77-year-old fiancé, who lives with dementia, was missing.
Thankfully, Akron Police Lt. Michael Murphy said officers found the man once they entered his vehicle information in the Flock system and detected it within minutes.
"Flock allowed us to locate him in a much quicker timeframe than if we would not have had the capability to do that,” said Murphy. “We’re not able to just freely search vehicles for no apparent reason. These are investigative tools that we’re only using in certain circumstances.”
Meanwhile, in Medina, Police Chief Ed Kinney said his officers used the Flock Safety license plate reader network last Sunday to try to locate a missing 75-year-old woman.
Then, Kinney said officers used emergency location information from the woman’s cellphone to track her, and eventually found her after she drove more than 2.5 hours from Medina.
"The Flock system allowed us to immediately concentrate our efforts to Hamilton County area and notify law enforcement in that area as well so that they could look out for her,” said Kinney.
Still, Akron community advocate Emily Carson believes the technology is an invasion of privacy.
Carson even told News 5 that she believes other things could’ve been done as opposed to using Flock Safety cameras to find the two missing people.
"I think the community, when asked, will show up to help people, and I just fundamentally believe that we should not be eroding our constitutional rights for the promise of safety and security,” said Carson.
Kinney and Murphy reassure that safeguards are in place to ensure officers and detectives use the technology appropriately.
"We do conduct audits and spot checks to ensure that our officers are using the technology responsibly,” said Kinney.
