Plano Police are no longer using more than 90 Flock license plate camera readers after the governor paused state funding last month, Chief Ed Drain said.<\/p>\n
He said the cameras had contributed to Plano’s lowering crime rate in recent years and said he was “caught off guard” by the move from Governor Greg Abbott.<\/p>\n
“Flock definitely helps us remove a lot of criminals from the streets,” Drain said. He said his officers will continue to work, even without the technology. “Straight up good, old-fashioned police work to keep our community safe. Flock can help us do that but if we don’t have Flock we still intend to do our job,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said the cameras may not be taken down immediately as Plano Police contracted with Flock on a subscription basis — meaning the company owns the cameras. He said his understanding is that Flock would keep the cameras up for 90 days or so to allow the department to seek out alternative funding sources — something Drain said he would not do until the legislature had formally weighed in on the technology.<\/p>\n
“I suspect that there will probably be a lot of conversations about Flock cameras down in Austin,” he said. “We want to see what comes out of that before we invest a lot of money in putting Flock cameras in.”<\/p>\n