Police flock to cameras

New technology is a valuable ally in fighting crime in Trumbull

WARREN -- The adoption of Flock cameras by various Trumbull County police departments has helped transform law enforcement's approach for solving crime and capturing wanted individuals.

The cameras are an advanced surveillance system capable of reading license plates and capturing real-time vehicle details, alllowing police departments like Niles and Cortland to be alerted of crime swiftly in cases that law enforcement agencies say otherwise might have gone undetected.

NILES SEES SUCCESS

Niles Police Capt. John Marshall estimates there are about 33 cameras "strategically" placed around the city with a focus on targeting entry points into Niles and "major traffic points," Marshall said.

"There are quite a few out in the area of 422 where we see several tens of thousands, maybe on some days up to hundreds of thousands, of transients because of the mall and other shops," Marshall said.

The Niles captain said cameras are at major routes coming into and out of the city. He said as the department becomes more aware of "blind" spots, those areas will be considered for additional cameras.

Whether by officers patrolling the city or detectives in the office, Marshall said the system is used daily, providing "great" results for the department, which implemented the cameras more than a year ago.

Marshall said the results have shown success in terms of recovering stolen vehicles. He said the department has recovered 35 stolen cars since the end of August 2022.

"And that's just what we've recovered. Twice as many of them we get alerts for, but maybe an officer is either not in the area or the suspect went somewhere out of the scope of the cameras," Marshall said.

He said the recovery rate of stolen vehicles has doubled the normal rate, which tops out at about five before getting the Flock cameras.

Over that same time period, Marshall estimates about 100 or so warrant arrests have been made, "which is about twice as many as we normally have just in normal police interactions," the captain said.

Marshall said the cameras aided in an investigation into a July 18 drive-by shooting in Niles, leading a Niles officer to search the city's arsenal of Flock cameras to locate a 2019 silver Volkswagen Passat from which a caller told dispatch they'd seen shots being fired at a home on Clay Street.

The vehicle was picked up by the cameras entering and then leaving the city on state Route 169.

The information was relayed to Warren police officers, who found the vehicle to be registered to a home in the 2000 block of Ada Avenue.

Warren police searched the home and arrested Dontavious Wallace as the search led to the recovery of two firearms in a laundry basket. That weapon matched more than a dozen shell casings found at the initial incident location in Niles.

A co-defendant, Anthony Butler, 1999 S. Feederle Drive SE, Warren, turned himself in to police on July 23. Wallace was sentenced to three years in prison for his role, while Butler was sentenced to five to six years. A third co-defendant, Brandy Bajwa, pleaded guilty to lesser changes and served jail time, according to court records.

NO FLOCK IN LORDSTOWN

Lordstown Village Council had considered adopting the cameras in 2022, but Lordstown police Chief Brent Milhoan said the decision not to add them was a "financial" one from council.

"Council was not opposed," Milhoan said. "They saw the benefits of Flock cameras and indicated that maybe in the future if we were able to allocate some money toward them, we certainly would."

Looking toward his neighbors in Niles, North Jackson and Liberty, the chief took note of the success those departments have seen with the addition of the advanced technology.

"Talking to the officers and chiefs in those areas, we hear the stories of how beneficial they are and we realize that criminals don't have a problem crossing jurisdictional lines," Milhoan said.

Milhoan used an example of the camera's importance, recounting the recent story of the statewide Amber Alert that led to the eventual recovery of a body believed to be that of 5-year-old Darnell Taylor of Columbus.

Milhoan made note that a Flock hit captured a 2015 Jeep Cherokee in the Cleveland area alleged to have been driven by the child's custodial mother and suspected killer 48-year-old Pammy Maye. The vehicle was located in Brooklyn, Ohio, where she was arrested last week.

"We just see the huge benefits of being able to track where that vehicle went," Milhoan said. "If you're looking into criminal action, burglaries, stolen vehicles, you can't argue the success."

As the chief awaits an opportunity to adopt the cameras, he said his department has been looking toward improving other areas, including the purchase of new police vehicles and new in-car cameras.

"We made some substantial purchases recently and again, it just came down to not enough money to do everything we wanted," Milhoan said.

CORTLAND IMPLEMENTING FLOCK

The ball has begun rolling on implementing the cameras in Cortland after an ordinance approved by city council in late December called for spending $53,000 on eight Flock cameras, a two-year subscription to maintain them and professional support service from Flock Safety, which tapped into the general fund and unspent American Rescue Plan funding.

Cortland police Chief David Morris said they recently they were "truly in the middle of it," stating that they're in the installation process as they do site surveys in a couple locations.

Like most law enforcement agencies, Morris said the cameras will focus on entry points and high traffic areas.

"We all have to work together because criminals are transient," Morris said. "Cortland is one of the most northern populated areas in Trumbull County off Route 11 between the Youngstown area and Ashtabula County."

Morris said he sees it as a preventative measure to figure out who might be coming in and out of the city limits.

Morris gave an example of a bank fraud case as one where the cameras could have been used to capture a "multijurisdictional" suspect who was captured on bank surveillance but "Flock cameras would've been golden for us and simplified the process," Morris said.

That suspect later was apprehended in Florida.

He also cited the success of Flock cameras at their local schools that have aided in helping catch hit-skip suspects, "just even simple things it allows for an accountability of cases to resolve them," Morris said.

Morris said since he became a policeman in the mid-to-late '90s, the technological advances in policing are "incredible."