The Town of Enterprise is the first area in the county to invest in flock cameras.
Police Chief Don Moore has been working for about a year to make flock cameras a reality for the town. The use of flock cameras in a neighboring county, which allowed an arrest to be made quickly, assisted in the overall decision to officially bring the cameras to Enterprise as well.
“We were the first ones to have computers in our cars, and we’re the first ones to get the flocked camera system,” explained Moore. “Part of the reason we got them was because of that ATM robbery that happened. When that robbery happened, my son Ben worked for Lauderdale County and asked me for a description of the car. I got camera footage from K&L. I couldn’t see a tag or anything, but I could tell him what kind of car it was and any unique marks on it. He started looking on the flock cameras in Lauderdale County and saw the car go by. It had a Texas license plate. A little bit later, he contacted the drug interdiction team over in Newton County, and they put it on the NCIC. Within an hour or two, that car went by one of the flock cameras in Texas, and they got them under arrest. It was within 24 hours of the ATM robbery. That’ s the reason we started looking into them. It took us about a year to get all the stuff into play. You have to let MDOT know so they can show where you can put them and where you can’t. You have to get all that legalized.”
He is aware of reservations that many citizens in the community who don’t like the idea of having their movements and actions tracked around the clock when they are in the area. In response, he explained how the cameras are going to work and how they intend to use them.
“Flock cameras are catching a lot of slack because of people using them for unnecessary reasons, like tracking a girlfriend or finding where someone is at. That’s not what we’re using these cameras for,” declared Moore. “We’re using these cameras for criminal investigations, not to see who ran a stop sign or came through a little too fast. This is for things like bank robbers or wanted individuals that may be coming through the town. The flock camera system is set up on NCIC where we have to run people through, and if a tag for someone wanted comes through, it sends an alert to our phone. It tells us if it’s a car that’s been stolen or if it’s a convicted felon a department is searching for or whatever. That’s the sole purpose of the system: to see who’s coming in and out of your town that has criminal activity going on. If someone stole your car, we’d type in a description of the car and search over the last 24 hours, and it would pull up every car that matches the description in that time, and you can see the tag number, where they’re coming from, and where they’re going. If something comes out of Lauderdale County, they can call us and tell us that it passed their flock camera and is headed towards Enterprise. When it hits our cameras, it’ll alert us, and we can intercept them. If I have a stolen car coming through Enterprise and headed to Meridian, I can call their dispatch and let them know that it just pinged on one of my cameras and is headed to Meridian. It’s going to be a very useful tool. It just has to be used in the right manner.”
He plans to do what he can to make sure that the system is used appropriately and won’t be used for unnecessary purposes to respect the privacy and rights of the citizens.
“If any agency uses our system, they have to send me an email explaining why they need to use our system,” informed Moore. “That way, I can explain why they were using our system. It’s for criminal use only, and they can come see me, and we’ll log in and look for whatever they need as long as they explain why they need it.”
While Enterprise is the first area to receive the cameras, other areas in Clarke County are possibly working towards acquiring them as well.
“We figure in the next year, we will have them in Stonewall,” stated Moore. “We’re talking about getting some in Stonewall now. We’re trying to be more advanced on what comes through because a lot of stuff comes out of Meridian and comes through Enterprise going to Stonewall or Quitman or going down Highway 11. There is a lot of traffic that comes through that needs to be checked.”
For now, he’s thankful to the Enterprise Mayor and Board of Aldermen for allowing the purchase of the system and appreciates all the support he has gotten for it so far.
