NEWPORT – Law enforcement officials will soon have a new surveillance tool they say will reduce crime in the City by the Sea.
At the request of the Newport Police Department, the City Council on Wednesday authorized Mayor Xaykham “Xay” Khamsyvoravong to sign a three-year, $48,250 contract with Atlanta,Ga.-based Flock Safety Group to purchase and install five "community safety cameras" equipped with automated license plate readers.
According to the resolution, the agreement includes a first-year cost of $18,250 and $15,000 for each subsequent year.
Currently in place in 11 other Rhode Island municipalities including Providence, Cranston, Warwick, Woonsocket, and East Providence, the cameras have "vehicle fingerprint technology," cloud software, and are fully integrated with both the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database, the nationwide Amber Alert systems, and the FBI's National Crime Information Center.
According to the Newport Police Department, 70% of crimes committed within the city involve a motor vehicle and the technology '"increases resources available to the Department and aids in in solving crime as well as protecting life and property.”
“They are very successful in solving crime and keeping the community safe in terms of people wanted for crimes or [who are] coming to the community from the outside,” said Chief of Police Ryan Duffy.
Duffy said the city also has contracts in place to install speed cameras and expect to have at least one up and running by the end of September.
Proposed Flock camera locations include Memorial Boulevard along the border with Middletown, Farewell Street, Washington Street, and the corners of Broadway and Summer street and Admiral Kalbfus Road and Girard Avenue.
According to documents provided to the city by Flock Systems, the technology includes an unlimited “Custom Hot Lists” where departments can add suspect license plates and receive alerts when their vehicle passes any of the cameras.
Privacy rights advocates have been critical of the expansion of this technology in the absence of any state legislation on the books limiting its scope.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island Inc. has launched a campaign to halt further implementation, arguing that privacy rights of Rhode Islanders "will be solely at the mercy of police departments and a private company," according to its website, which calls on municipalities and state officials to "put in place meaningful restrictions on the future consideration of any surveillance."
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
