Flock Safety licence plate reading cameras help in solving a criminal case at a South Carolina park

A South Carolina park outside the Charlotte area was experiencing an issue — park crime. Over the course of a month, someone had been breaking into cars in the parking lot, stealing credit cards and personal checks.

Police had received eyewitness accounts of an individual checking door handles on cars in the parking lot. But without concrete evidence to link with an identity, police were unable to pursue the eye-witness accounts.

Preventing park crime

Local police were involved in gathering evidence to catch the suspect. But because parks see low traffic, police departments have to make a decision when it comes to allocating resources within their jurisdiction.

To solve and prevent park crime, South Carolina police knew they needed to focus their attention and resources on this park and the area surrounding it. To keep an eye on visitors coming and going without dispatching officers 24/7, the police department installed Flock Safety licence plate reading cameras on a road outside the park.

Stolen credit cards

Flock Safety can capture and read footage of vehicles that pass by, both during the day and at night

They needed a tool that would multiply their attention on the area without sacrificing manpower in other important areas. The police department needed to be everywhere at the same time.

Flock Safety can capture and read footage of vehicles that pass by, both during the day and at night. From footage captured, users can search using criteria such as vehicle colour, timeframe, object, and person. For police departments, this means they are able to maximise their manpower in the field. The South Carolina police were seeing activity on the stolen credit cards and checks that pointed to a bank just outside their jurisdiction.

Getting concrete evidence

Working with the bank and the area’s local police, South Carolina police reviewed footage captured by the bank’s cameras and located footage of a suspicious vehicle. Using this footage, police were able to cross-reference the vehicle and its details with footage captured by their Flock Safety camera outside the park. Unsurprisingly, police found a match.

Working with police departments in other jurisdictions, the South Carolina police realised their park perpetrator was linked with several park crime incidents in other states. With concrete evidence from both the Flock Safety and the bank camera, police located and arrested the park perpetrator together with a second assailant captured on their Flock camera.