LYNCHBURG, Va. – New technology could be coming to Lynchburg to better fight crime.
On Tuesday during Lynchburg City Council’s work session, Lynchburg Police Chief Ryan Zuidema presented two new resources he wants to start implementing in the city.
One is a license plate recognition camera.
“It will allow us to locate missing persons, wanted individuals, and stolen vehicles,” said Chief Zuidema.
And the second is a gunshot detection device called, Raven.
Both are made by the company, Flock Safety.
“When gunshots are heard in the area it will allow them to geo-locate through sensors and it will report it close to real time. Sometimes, we don’t get a lot of these calls until much later when they are done,” said Zuidema.
Some other law enforcement departments in the region are already working to put this technology to use, like Roanoke, Martinsville and Radford.
The company said they’re seeing success with their products.
“One community down in Florida, it has helped reduce gunshots in the county by over 60%. So this is a technology that is making a difference in people’s lives across the country every single day,” said Flock Safety spokesperson, Holly Beilin.
The council is set to vote next month on whether or not they approve this equipment to be installed on city property.
Some members showed support for the technology during the work session, while others did not approve.
“As long as the police department is in favor, I’m inclined to support it. They just need more tools in the tool kit to address crime, to address shooting,” said Council Member Dr. Sterling Wilder.
“I don’t like this. I’m sure there are lots of benefits, lots of neat things but I don’t like the concept of the ‘Big Brother’ watching you,” said Council Member Jeff Helgeson.
Flock Safety said their data is only stored for 30 days until it is automatically deleted. They said there are no voices, conversations or photos of humans stored in the data.