The Jeffersonville City Council approved a $75,000 appropriation for the department to purchase the Flock Safety System. Jeffersonville Police Chief Kenny Kavanaugh and Major Josh Lynch presented the idea to the council on Monday.
Kavanaugh told the city council that the system would be beneficial when dealing with crime in the city.
The camera system is an automatic license plate reader that will sync up with the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC), an index of criminal and missing persons information.
This connection allows the system that works 24/7 to provide notifications in regard to vehicles that may be involved in carjackings, kidnappings and other similar crimes, according to Kavanaugh.
The cameras will only store data of vehicles with criteria that was flagged beforehand, according to Council President Matt Owen.
"When you look at right now some of the crime we've had occur in the City of Jeffersonville, with two different carjackings, and you see some of the surrounding crime in the Kentuckiana area, you see that we have persons or individuals that are traversing around by different vehicles and they're utilizing this to come inside communities," Kavanaugh said.
A factor of the system that Kavanaugh said is huge for policing considering events over the last few years is that it limits the randomization of criminal stops.
"Any information will be verified before officers are taking engagement of proactive policing measures and activity, and again getting away from randomization of criminal stops," he said, but still allowing the department to be aware of criminal behavior and keep the community safe.
The chief also said that this system gives the department somewhere to begin looking for investigations in which there is no starting point.
Lynch noted that this is not new technology that the department is jumping into, but that they have been considering a system like this over the years.
"We did our homework, we looked at this, we allowed other agencies, other communities to jump into that technology," Lynch said.
He said that Flock's camera system is one of the most efficient and effective that he has seen.
Flock approached the department about the camera system last March, but for a cost of $170,000, which Kavanaugh said was not feasible. The company cut costs and came back with the $75,000 price.
The system includes 30 small cameras that can be installed on existing poles owned by the Indiana Department of Transportation. Kavanaugh said that they have already spoken with the city's engineer about how these cameras would be placed to correspond with Jeffersonville's standards.
Kavanaugh said that there are 60 communities in the state that are using this equipment. All of the communities' systems are integrated, allowing for the departments to communicate and more proficiently work on investigations, Lynch explained.
There are no additional charges for maintenance or repairs to the cameras, but are included in the initial cost, according to Lynch.
The police department's budget for 2023 will also need to include an additional $75,000 to accommodate the two-year contract with Flock.
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