Kingston Springs FLOCK cameras capture nearly 8,000 vehicles daily

Kingston Springs has nine FLOCK license plate reader cameras installed throughout town, with the system capturing thousands of vehicle images each day, according to an internal email obtained by the Gazette.

The first two cameras were installed in 2022 at the Luyben Hills Road entrances to Interstate 40. The Town later approved funding for seven additional cameras, bringing the total to nine.

The cameras are positioned at roadway entrances into Kingston Springs. The town currently pays approximately $22,500 annually for the cameras, hardware and software upkeep, and data transmission. According to the email, there are no plans to add additional cameras at this time.

The cameras are motion-activated and capture still images of passing vehicles, generally from the rear. Depending on conditions, images may show a vehicle’s color, make and model, license plate characters, state of issuance, bumper stickers, racks and visible damage.

According to the email, the cameras do not identify who is inside a vehicle, use facial recognition or biometric identification, capture cell-phone or Wi-Fi signals or record continuous video.

The system captures an average of approximately 16,125 license plate reader images each day. After accounting for repeat captures of the same vehicles, the email said the town estimates approximately 7,993 individual vehicle captures per day.

The system currently operates under a 30-day data retention period. Data is stored on Amazon Web Services GovCloud and is automatically deleted after 30 days unless it has been specifically preserved under applicable law or for an active investigation.

Since the cameras were installed, Kingston Springs Police Department has received 2,355 official “Hotlist Alerts,” according to the information obtained. The alerts are generated when a scanned license plate matches information contained in an applicable hotlist.

The town said alerts have included stolen vehicles, stolen license plates, missing persons and license plates associated with criminal activity. Some alerts have been determined to be incorrect because of license-plate or state-of-issuance misreads.

The largest category of alerts was sex offenders, with 1,262. Other categories included stolen plates with 360, stolen vehicles with 334, protection orders with 154, KSPD custom alerts with 76 and warrants with 75.

The system also recorded 44 alerts categorized as “Gang or Suspected Terrorist,” 27 as “Violent Person,” 17 as “Missing Person” and two as Extreme Risk Protection Orders.

The email emphasized that a hotlist alert is not itself a determination that someone committed a crime. Each alert must be reviewed by an officer and may ultimately be determined to be false, outdated or otherwise not actionable.

KSPD officers can review images when a hotlist alert is generated or when conducting a search for a legitimate investigative purpose. The department does not continuously monitor the cameras or maintain a live video feed, according to the email.

KSPD owns and controls the camera data. The information is not publicly accessible or automatically shared with outside agencies, although KSPD may choose to share access with other authorized law-enforcement agencies through digital sharing agreements.

The email said KSPD also uses FLOCK’s network audit tool to review searches conducted by KSPD officers and other law-enforcement agencies and custom hotlist alerts generated through the system. Searches are associated with individual officer accounts and recorded in the system’s audit history.

The email said the cameras are intended to provide an investigative resource focused on vehicles and license plates entering and exiting Kingston Springs. Officers must independently evaluate and verify information obtained through the system before taking enforcement action.