Oklahoma police departments turn to crimefighting cameras

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Police departments across Oklahoma are turning to cameras to capture criminals.

The City of Tulsa, for instance, has installed 46 Flock Safety cameras and said it plans to add even more.

Sheriffs in Tulsa County and Wagoner County have both installed Flock cameras.

Flock Safety said it works with 30 law enforcement agencies across Oklahoma, including Catoosa.

Its police chief said it’s like doubling the size of his department at a fraction of the cost.

Cpl. Aaron Adams has seen more success with the Flock camera network than anyone in the Catoosa Police Department.

“I think the very first day we had it active, we had a stolen vehicle hit,” he recalled. “It was like, I don’t know, four hours after getting this?”

Adams said he makes between five and twenty arrests per month, about two of those come from Catoosa’s ten Flock cameras.

“And it is night and day, because instead of just hunting them down and trying to find stolen vehicles, sometimes it just falls in our laps,” he said.

“These are motion-activated cameras, and they capture a picture of the back of the vehicle and the rear license plate,” Flock Safety spokesperson Holly Beilin said.

“In Tulsa, we’ve been able to help law enforcement solve violent crimes,” she continued. “There’s been a couple of assaults, carjacking’s, things of that nature, as well as property crimes, like of course, vehicle theft.”

“These cameras have been involved in solving crimes from homicide to shoplifting,” Tulsa Police Department said in a statement.

“They had an armed robbery suspect that was entered in Flock, and we located them here in Catoosa,” said Catoosa Police Chief Ronnie Benight. “It’s a nationwide network, and it allows us to reach out much further.”

Like many agencies across the country, Benight has struggled with manpower.

“So having the Flock cameras, that gives us ten sets of eyes out there that I can’t afford to have,” he asserted.

The extra eyes, though, lead to natural comparisons.

“You worry about Big Brother,” Benight said. “Everybody’s saying, ‘Big Brother, Big Brother.’ It’s not Big Brother at all.”

He said it is possible for police departments to ensure these systems won’t be abused.

“You’re going to do that by policy,” Benight explained. “Anything, any state law, anything can be abused.”

“We do not base our traffic stops off of Flock information,” he continued. “The only time a Flock camera is going to pay you any attention is if we’ve told it to.” “Every image is tagged when it is captured, and 30 days later, automatically, by default, hard deleted, never to be found again,” Beilin added.

“We border Tulsa on two sides, so we basically see the same activity that they’re seeing, but we just don’t have the manpower to deal with it,” Benight said. “So this really helps us with that.”

TPD said it has seen “an overwhelming amount of support” for the cameras since their installation. They will be doing “additional analysis” of their performance in the next month or so.