The Custer County Sheriff’s Office has ended its contract with Flock Safety and removed the county’s remaining automated license plate reader cameras, closing a program that played a role in serious criminal investigations connected to the region, including the recovery of a stolen vehicle in Cañon City.
A Flock contractor removed the equipment this past weekend, according to the sheriff’s office. CCSO said it initially operated three cameras before deciding to cancel the contract amid increasing concerns from Custer County residents about privacy and how license plate data could be used.
Technology helped locate stolen vehicle in Cañon City
One recent case involved an armed carjacking involving a juvenile in Silver Cliff. The sheriff’s office said Flock technology helped investigators locate the stolen vehicle in Cañon City. Other agencies later pursued the suspect before ending the pursuit.
According to CCSO, the suspect later fired at officers and members of the public while driving north on Highway 115. The suspect carjacked two additional vehicles before Colorado Springs police arrested the suspect, the sheriff’s office said.
The system also played a role in the investigation of a 2023 triple homicide in Custer County. While deputies worked the crime scene in November 2023, CCSO issued a nationwide Be On the Lookout, or BOLO, alert for the suspect.
A deputy in a neighboring county used Flock to locate the suspect’s vehicle at a Walmart in Salida, according to CCSO. Salida police and the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office responded, but the suspect had already left.
The following morning, a Flock camera in Santa Fe, New Mexico, recorded the vehicle. The U.S. Marshals Task Force, along with state, county and local law enforcement agencies, used that information to estimate when the vehicle would reach Albuquerque. Officers then located the vehicle and conducted a high-risk traffic stop. The suspect was arrested, and no one was injured, CCSO said.
Privacy concerns drove decision
CCSO said its system originally allowed license plate data to be shared with law enforcement agencies nationwide. Data was automatically deleted after 30 days, which the sheriff’s office said was below Colorado’s one-year legal storage limit.
The sheriff’s office also said Colorado law prohibits state law enforcement agencies from sharing license plate reader data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and prohibits sharing data related to reproductive health care services.
Reports from around the country alleging that officers had misused license plate reader databases for searches unrelated to criminal investigations also contributed to the sheriff’s office’s concerns. Sheriff Smith said he was troubled that a tool he considered valuable for investigations had been misused.
CCSO notified Flock on March 24 that it wanted to cancel the contract. The equipment removal officially ended the agreement.
The sheriff’s office acknowledged that other companies offer similar automated license plate reader systems and that they could raise comparable privacy concerns. For now, CCSO said it does not plan to install another license plate reader system or the photo radar cameras previously discussed.