KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers portions of eastern Jackson County, including areas like Blue Springs and Independence. If you have a story idea to share, send an email to Claire at claire.bradshaw@kshb.com.
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The Grain Valley Police Department recently purchased five Flock Safety cameras.
The license plate cameras, which cost $3,000 annually, according to GVPD Chief Ed Turner, were paid for with American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Turner said the cameras read plate numbers as vehicles drive by and send that information to Flock's database, which utilizes the FBI's criminal justice information system.
If a plate is flagged for criminal activity, such as an Amber Alert, GVPD knows in real-time.
Turner said cameras are positioned in locations like Interstate 70 for a reason.
“Although we know that crime occurs throughout the area, unfortunately, most of the crime that we have occurs from people traveling into our community, and then they leave our community, which then leads us to try to solve those problems,” Turner said.
GVPD can now connect with other departments that use Flock Safety cameras, such as the Blue Springs Police Department. For example, police can share plate information after the connection is established.
Two Grain Valley patrol cars have had license plate cameras installed on top since July 2023. Turner said citizens should not have concerns about their information being shared because it is protected by law.
“Flock works with CJIS, and, in turn, that information is protected by law in terms of how it's used once it comes into law enforcement presence," he said. "That information, by state retention law, we are required to keep anything that we take in for a minimum of 30 days. So that information is stored in a cloud secure CJIS approved cloud database, which is then deleted after 30 days."
Flock Safety said it partners with around 160 law enforcement agencies in Missouri and around 80 in Kansas.
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