INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — AI technology is providing Independence Police officers with another tool to combat crime. Independence Police were among the first in Ohio to get Flock cameras.
“About four years ago, we solved a bank robbery. These bank robbers had hit several communities if it was not for the Flock cameras, we would have never solved that crime,” said Butler.
Flock cameras take a snapshot of a vehicle and alert police when a car that they are looking for passes through a camera.
“Warrants, stolen cars, missing and endangered people. Those are what the officers are getting the alerts on,” said Butler.
When officers are alerted, they respond to the area where the car was last seen. But, many times the vehicle is already gone, and police need to search for it. Now, closed-circuit live cameras work with the Flock cameras to provide real-time information to police.
“These cameras are actively searching for that car and can provide real-time updates to the officers to get them to the potential threat or to the person who needs help,” explained Butler.
So far, there are seven cameras up in the city capturing what’s happening in Independence. Butler said the cameras are only for law enforcement use, and there is no facial recognition involved. The cameras, he said, are only focused on vehicles. Butler said the city got a grant to help cover the cost of the yearly fees for the cameras.
“It is a computer program, so it’s only as good as the program itself,” said Michael Benza, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. “It is very exciting time to be working in any of these areas where AI is doing stuff. It’s also a very scary time because we don’t actually know everything that AI does,” he added.
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