Estes Park Police Chief Ian Stewart made his case for installing four automatic license plate readers before a gathering of more than a dozen community members in the Town Hall board room last week. The meeting was one of three public engagement sessions to present the idea, answer questions, and garner community support.
Stewart was joined via video conferencing by Kristen McLeod, the public affairs manager from Flock Security, and Kyle Malone, a sales manager with Flock, one of the leading companies that leases the equipment.
According to information provided at the meeting by Flock, more than 5,000 communities utilize their equipment, and over 2,200 crimes are solved weekly using the company’s technology. Additionally, the company claims that 10 percent of reported crimes in the U.S. are solved using Flock cameras.
Citing several situations where automatic license plate readers in Estes could have played a role in identifying vehicles involved in a crime or public safety matter – such as a drive by shooting in Estes Park last summer and an individual in route to Estes who had expressed both suicidal and homicidal ideations – Stewart said the technology is an additional tool in the tool box that can help law enforcement do its job.
“We have about 6000 residents here, but for me, and I am speaking through the lens of my experiences here as your chief and 25 years as a Larimer County law enforcement officer on top of a year and a half here, we have over 4 million people come through this town, and that’s where, it has been my experience, the major crimes that affect our town are coming from,” said Stewart.
“It is through this lens that I’m coming to you for the community to consider if Flock might be a possible tool to help us with those issues,” said Stewart who called the equipment a “force multiplier” without increasing staffing.
Stewart would like to install the solar-powered license plate readers at entrance and exit points to Estes Park, including U.S. Highways 34 and 36, Colorado Highway 7, and County Road 43.
Community members inquired about the security of the data collected by the cameras, the duration of data storage, and whether other law enforcement agencies, including state and federal agencies, could access the information.
Stewart and McLeod also answered questions about how Estes Park could set its policies about the use of the data, which is stored for up to 30 days before being automatically deleted by Flock.
Among the concerns raised by community members were whether the technology could be used to identify individuals, if the cameras could be used for traffic regulation and ticketing, and if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal law enforcement agencies could seize the data.
The technology is not programmed for face recognition nor set up to monitor for traffic violations, and the leasing organization owns the data, which Flock does not share with any other organizations, said McLeod. Flock has also not experienced a data breach.
Stewart said that most of the surrounding county and municipal law enforcement jurisdictions, including the Boulder, Jackson, Larimer and Grand County Sheriff’s Offices, and the Loveland, Lafayette, and Denver Police Departments, as well as RMNP and some 75 other Colorado law enforcement agencies, are using automatic license plate readers on public rights-of-way.
Beyond helping law enforcement to solve and deter property crimes, Stewart said the equipment is useful in dealing with Silver Alerts, Amber Alerts, and cases of missing and exploited children.
Additionally, many private businesses, some local parking lots, and numerous shopping centers and homeowners associations are using automatic license plate readers to monitor their properties.
While many communities are adopting the technology, some are pulling away. The Denver City Council decided in May not to extend its contract with Flock for another two years, citing concerns that the equipment could violate the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
In May 2024, Denver installed 111 Flock cameras at 70 locations. According to the Denver Police Department’s media relations department, as of April 8, Flock cameras have been credited with numerous investigations and prosecutions of stolen vehicles and other crimes, resulting in 275 arrests, 180 recovered stolen vehicles, and the recovery of 29 firearms. In 2002, there were nearly 15,000 auto thefts in the city. In 2024, after the installation of the cameras, there were about 8,500. The cameras have been credited with reducing the incidence of car thefts.
Colorado ACLU perspective
In an interview with the Estes Valley Voice, Anaya Robinson, the public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, expressed serious concerns about the cameras.
“From a constitutional and civil liberties perspective, any technology that’s really increasing the availability of 24/7 government surveillance makes us uncomfortable,” said Robinson.
“Flock is creating this nationwide system of surveillance for government use. There’s a real easy availability to toggle in between access to the nationwide network of data sets for local law enforcement agencies, which in turn allows federal agencies to access local law enforcement databases,” said Robinson.
“There’s a lot of layers of government access to that surveillance type, and we think that in some cases, it could pose really significant Fourth Amendment concerns, and depending on the number of cameras being accessed and things of that nature, could potentially, at some point create Fourth Amendment violations,” said Robinson.
Cost
The annual lease arrangement with Flock includes installation, maintenance, footage hosting, cellular service (LTE), software updates, and customer support. The initial cost for the four cameras would be $28,700 for the first year, followed by $24,000 per year thereafter.
The Town Board held a study session in May to learn about the automatic license plate readers. It is expected that they will take up the matter of the cameras at an upcoming Town Board meeting.