KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Independence. Share your story idea with Claire.
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In the summer of 2024, KSHB 41 News reporter Claire Bradshaw spoke with Grain Valley Police Chief Ed Turner about his department's new license plate readers.
Eight months later during a follow-up interview, Turner said these cameras — both on light poles and on police cruisers — give his officers a policing tool, not a crutch.
“Technology is used by criminals, through apps and cell phones and different mechanisms to help them accomplish their task," Turner said. "For me, this kind of evens the playing field that allows us to have tools for our use, to be able to apply that and be in touch with what the criminal is, where they're at, what they're doing."
Grain Valley is subscribed to theFlock camera system. Every time a vehicle drives by, the camera snaps a picture of the license plate or back of the car.
The system then runs the plate through the National Crime Information Center Database. It will flag any vehicles that have red flags attached to the plate number.
“We've had a missing person on dialysis that we identified, a hit and run suspect. We've had possible homicide suspect, not from us, but from adjoining agencies," Turner said. "They can call us. We, through our license plate readers, help them to identify where this person is traveling."
Those partnering agencies are cities right next door, like Blue Springs.
The Blue Springs Police Department has had its Flock system since January 2023, monitoring 52 cameras and 10 city CCTV cameras. Lt. Brandon Claxton said in the two years the department has used LPRs, detectives have been able to crack cases like a murder at a local park and an Ulta burglar that hit 13 different stores in the Midwest.
“If we’re looking for someone and it's involved in a crime and we want other agencies to know, 'Hey, this vehicle was involved in this crime,' we can put in an alert and it lets those other agencies know," Claxton said.
Claxton and Turner agree officers benefit from having access to more than 10,000 cameras across the country at their fingertips.
