Jefferson County installs 11 license plate reader cameras, with hopes to build 14 more

Static cameras equipped with license-plate readers will soon be installed across Jefferson County to help combat the rise in vehicle thefts.

"Particularly in the southern part of Jefferson County, we're seeing more of that and so a lot of these cameras will be down in that area," said Karlyn Tilley, public information officer for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office, which has been using license plate reading technology in their vehicles for more than 20 years, says these cameras are static and can look at every plate that passes by. The camera software is connected to a national database of stolen cars so anytime a plate listed as stolen passes by, it flags it without fail.

Tilley said right now it's just a pilot program. The Sheriff's Office has been following the success of the cameras Golden. The police department there has been using the technology for the last year.

"It was a pretty dramatic change. We went from having a typical call load where we were steady and then receiving these alerts where we were going out two or three times a day to apprehend offenders that were in vehicles that were coming into cameras," said Cody Schroeder, special operations sergeant with the Golden Police Department.

Schroeder says there are steps to ensure they're targeting the correct vehicle. The technology has allowed his team to respond almost immediately.

"We are tight on resources at times but when officers get the alerts they try to go straight to the area and saturate the area," he said.

In the first quarter of 2022, Golden Police recovered 52 stolen vehicles, a 240 percent increase year over year.

The cameras aren't too noticeable if you're not looking for them- there are 11 of them around Golden. Jefferson County hopes to work with Flock Safety, the company that makes the cameras, to install 25.

"It could flag license plates it can also flag descriptions of cars, so if there's a specific description of a car that had been stolen with a particular sticker on it, we could look through that and see if that particular type of car had gone through and that would give us a better idea of timing and location," said Tilley.

Tilley said the Sheriff's Office recently worked with Golden Police to use the cameras to track down a missing person. They knew the person was last seen at Lookout Mountain.

"We were able to determine the time that person had left and eventually we were able to find that person safe," she said.

The cameras in Golden have helped jurisdictions across the state aid in and close cases.

"In these stolen vehicles we're recovering firearms, we're recovering weapons we've had drug seizures of large quantities and we're recovering stolen property," said Schroeder.

Tilley said she knows privacy is a major concern- she said those driving around with expired tabs don't have to worry. At least not about the cameras.

"This is not a system that is designed for minor infractions such as that. This is for the bigger crimes this is to catch the people who have amber alerts or silver alerts or car thefts. It's not intended to get people for not registering their vehicle," she said.

The data is housed on a government server only for 30 days and then automatically deleted. JCSO would own the data and might share information with other law enforcement agencies in specific cases, but would never share it with the private sector

Schroeder says it becomes an issue when thieves start removing license plates but overall, it's been well worth the investment.

The sheriff's office says it's still in the permitting process for the location of the cameras but will begin installation once the 25 locations are approved.

Flock Safety will fund the program for the county for the first year. After a year, Tilley said it will cost the county around $75,000 to continue it.

To learn more about Flock Safety, click here.