New Whiteville police camera helps capture wanted suspect; Cameras spark privacy debate
WHITEVILLE, NC (WWAY-TV) — The Whiteville Police Department reports that new license plate reader technology led to the arrest of a wanted woman in a Cumberland County homicide investigation.
An arrest was made less than 24 hours after the new camera was installed.
Most Whiteville residents may not even realize that they are there. The AI-powered cameras spotted along the outskirts of Whiteville are LPR cameras the police department uses to track criminals entering and exiting the city.
Police were notified that Q’Rana McKay, who was wanted in the Cumberland County homicide investigation, had entered the city on Mar. 8.
Paul Rockenbach, chief of police, said the new camera led to the safe arrest of McKay shortly after the notification.
“We got somebody that was wanted for a heinous crime or involved in a heinous crime in some sort of fashion off the streets and off the streets of the city of Whiteville so that keeps everybody safe,” said Rockenbach.
Flock Safety is the company behind these cameras.
Senior Real Time & GSOC Consulting Manager, Max Weinstein said “This is a deployable, attainable, technology for public safety agencies nationwide,”
Weinstein said their system is synced with the National Crime Information Center when a warrant connected to a vehicle is put into the NCIC database.
DeFlock, an online resource which provides the exact locations of these cameras on a map, has raised concern for the threat these cameras pose to personal privacy and civil liberties.
Weinstein said the cameras are not tracking every citizen’s movement and every user has the ability to control where their data is or isn’t shared. Weinstein said the company has also built a number of safeguards.
“Among that is that we have a 30-day retention period, which means that every single piece of data, that’s taken every image is completely hard erased after 30 days,” said Weinstein.
Since 2022, nine Flock cameras have been installed in Whiteville and each one costs around $2,500. Rockenbach said they are looking to add a mobilized Flock camera to their fleet.
The American Civil Liberties Union also shared its concerns about Flock camera. The organization says it poses a risk for a centralization of data, accuracy and possibility to become a system of mass surveillance.
