RIVERVIEW, Fla. — The quiet Riverview community of Paddock Oaks has a new crime-fighting tool that tracks your whereabouts by scanning your license plates.
"I like the fact that it supports the police department's efforts to try and reduce crime,” said Bill Staley, president of the Paddock Oaks homeowner’s association. "If they come into the neighborhood thinking they're going to turn their lights off and not get picked up, it still is able to pick it up and read it."
In an effort to keep his community safe, Staley worked with a tech company called "Flock" to install a license plate reader at the entrance to his neighborhood. It snaps your plate and stores the time, date and location online.
It’s a tool law enforcement uses all the time. However, privacy advocates like the ACLU say this type of technology goes too far because it collects so much information about who and where you are.
Staley acknowledges that some neighbors had concerns about implementing the technology in their neighborhood, but he says it's already working to keep his community safe.
“One of the homeowners was out of town and upon their return, they noticed that the tailgate on their truck was stolen," he said. "So, he let me know...and I reached out to Flock safety immediately. My wife, who's an amateur detective went through camera footage and was able to determine the time that the crime took place."
The information was turned over to law enforcement, and the crooks were arrested.
Flock says the homeowner's association owns 100 percent of the footage--and data in the cloud is deleted after 30 days.
“A lot of people were concerned about intrusion into privacy and everything," he said. "We never go into it. Nor does Flock. Nobody does. It's only in the event it's been reported to us that we will ask to retrieve license plates."
Flock says neighbors can choose to opt-out of having their license plate information stored in the online database.
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