LOUISVILLE, Ky. — More license plate reading cameras are coming to Louisville. On Thursday, the Louisville Metro Council earmarked $177,100 to buy a new round of Flock cameras. District 12 and 14 will each get 14 cameras.
“I’m pretty happy with how many we got,” said Metro Councilwoman Cindi Fowler, D-District 14. “So it was important to me to give them the tools that they needed to do their job more effectively, especially with less officers.”
Louisville Metro Police Department currently has 136 Flock cameras and is in the process of installing over a hundred more.
Councilwoman Fowler and Councilman Rick Blackwell, D-District 12, say their two districts only have a handful of cameras currently. This new funding will change that.
“We can keep saying to people we don’t have enough police officers but it’s up to us to say okay, well if that’s going to be the case, then what are we going to be able to do to stretch them,” Blackwell said.
In a statement provided to Spectrum News, LMPD says they find Flock cameras useful in their police work and access the network of cameras hundreds of times per day.
The department says this year Flock assisted in recovering 53 vehicles. The technology is being actively used in more than 60 cases, according to LMPD.
“It is technology that works,” Blackwell said.
Fowler adds she helped decide where the new cameras will be installed, but will not share their locations publicly. Exactly when the 28 Flock cameras will be installed is not known.
Flock cameras have gained in popularity nationwide in the last few years. Several Kentucky cities beyond Louisville are using them too, including Lexington and Elizabethtown.
Louisville’s 2024-25 budget includes a $500,000 line item for “license plate reader expansion” under money earmarked for LMPD.