Oklahoma City Police set to have 90 Flock cameras by the end of the July

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - The Oklahoma City Police Department is getting a big addition to its crime-fighting tools.

The department is set to have a total of 90 automatic license plate reading cameras installed and operating by the end of this month.

Oklahoma City Police already have 25 of these cameras that have been in use over the last year and say they've been a valuable tool.

"They've helped tremendously. I think over the past year, they've helped us solve over 100 crimes anywhere from stolen vehicles all the way to homicide," said Captain Valerie Littlejohn with the Oklahoma City Police Department.

Littlejohn says by the end of this month, OKCPD will have 90 Flock cameras scattered throughout high-traffic areas of the city.

"They're automated license plate readers and then they can capture vehicle descriptions, different identifiers on vehicles," she told News 4. 

If the cameras find a vehicle involved with a crime, Amber Alert or Silver Alert, police are notified.

"That way, when a crime is committed and we have any kind of information on that vehicle, it helps us hopefully locate that vehicle when we start investigation," said Littlejohn. 

Just this past Sunday - a Flock camera helped OKC Police catch a suspect named Charles Amos - who was wanted in an attempted murder case out of Kansas.

Last month, the Guthrie Police Department's Flock camera system helped them catch two suspects driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen.

Littlejohn says there has been some concern and misconception about what the cameras do.

"They are used for identification of vehicles," she told News 4. "It doesn't recognize people's faces. It doesn't have any kind of personal identifiable information. It has helped get these dangerous people off the streets to help make our community safer."

The ACLU has voiced concerns about the surveillance of the Flock camera system - but says it doesn't generally object to the use of them for the purposes described by Oklahoma City Police.

Littlejohn tells News 4 the cameras' data is only stored for 30 days and there must be a legitimate law enforcement reason to search the database.

The Oklahoma City Council approved a 257-thousand-500-dollar budget for the cameras over the next year.