Boulder PD using Flock surveillance to help police city

BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) — FOX31 is diving deeper with the Boulder Police Department and the company behind the Flock surveillance cameras after a recent hit on the technology led to police arresting a wanted fugitive in Colorado with a lengthy wrap sheet.

In the city of Boulder, with 30 active flock cameras, officers recently received a flock hit notifying about a car associated with a felony warrant traveling in the city. Boulder Flock cameras help catch wanted fugitive with nearly 80 prior arrests

“That in and of itself is not enough to take action,” BPD Commander Brannon Winn said. “They have to go out and find additional information and vet it and compare the information to make sure that it matches and that they’re on the right track and that they’re following the right person.”

In this case, Winn said they verified the active warrant and compared a photo of the person they were looking for to the man behind the wheel to confirm it was the right person.

A Colorado Bureau of Information’s record check of the man shows 78 results under his criminal history dating back to a probation violation in 1996. Between then and the latest active warrants out of Larimer County, there are a number of arrests surrounding, dangerous drugs, assault, domestic violence, habitual traffic offender and more.

“The person that we were looking for has a history of eluding police and engaging in police chases,” Winn said. “Because we had this time, we were able to arrest him in a situation where he was outside the car, safe with the community, safe for him and safe for our officers.”

Winn talked about this case and the bigger picture of Flock with FOX31.

“Historically in policing, we’ve had a very responsive mode playing defense,” Winn said. “I would say there is a fair chance that people in the community have been protected because we’ve prevented crime as a result of this. And this case could, could possibly be an example of that. He did not commit any crimes while he was in our city, But I don’t know why he was here. He didn’t necessarily have a specific purpose for being here. And given his history, I think that could have been we could have very well prevented some crimes here.”

Since implementing Flock in 2022, BPD reports a 34.5% reduction in motor vehicle thefts.

Flock has been around for several years in Colorado. FOX31 talked about the software with a spokesperson.

“I would say we we grew over the last year or two years and we now partner with about a hundred cities in the state of Colorado,” Flock Safety Spokesperson Holly Beilin said.

FOX31 asked Beilin about people’s concerns surrounding their privacy.

“This technology, license plate readers, its reading license plates on public roadways where there’s no expectation of privacy,” Beilin said. “It knows nothing about the person driving the vehicle. It knows nothing about the name of the driver or even who the vehicle’s registered to, just that license plate on a public road. And so to me, if we’re giving up a little bit of privacy to make sure that we can get a pizza delivered to our house or to make sure that we can swipe a credit card and check our mobile banking app. Man, giving up a little bit of privacy of a vehicle, driving on a public road to be able to find an individual who has 80 violent crimes or solve a kidnaping or find a missing child. I mean, that just feels like a choice. That’s a no brainer.”

Beilin told FOX31 that Flock integrates with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Amber Alert database and has helped find more than a thousand missing people across the United States.