# Flock cameras are growing in popularity: LPD responds to why they are beneficial
# Everything Lubbock — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl51Lf3stkA

Back in 2025, city council unanimously
approved flock cameras within city
limits after their resounding success
out in the county. But now there's some
push back across the nation on flock. So
we sent KBK's Julia Roberts to sit down
with our chief Seth Herman to update us
on how these license plate readers are
doing here at home. Julia, what'd you
find out?
Terry, first let's take a look behind
me. For folks that don't know, this is
what a flock camera looked like. you
might have drove past it while going uh
to places around the hub city. What it
does is it takes photo of every single
car that drives past it, storing the
license plate information in the
department's database for 30 days. But
LPD says they are only utilized and then
retained for a certain crime or if
someone is missing and that there are 14
cameras in the hub city. One thing to
note is that these cameras are
stationary, meaning they don't move. So
I asked Chief Seth, Seth Herman, excuse
me, with LPD why they felt the need to
bring these cameras to Levik
to deter crime and to identify the
criminals who are committing the crime
and apprehend them. This system has
increased our capabilities a
thousandfold. Leach police chief Seth
Herman says there has been
misconceptions circulating the internet
about what flock cameras actually do.
One being that it's a video and audio
recording system.
That's actually not true at all. That we
have people who are constantly
monitoring those still photos, which we
don't. Uh it's an alert based on a
criminal investigation and or a uh a
missing person who's in danger. And
those license plates that are entered
into the system with specific criteria,
those are the only ones that alert to
our system.
There is a possibility that departments
around Texas can also get access to the
stored data
if we agree to it. Yes.
Only staying in the system for 30 days.
We do not maintain a central repository
of that information. It's on a 30-day
rotation. So once the 30 days is
elapsed, then that information is no
longer within the system only if it's
tied specifically to a felonious
criminal act or the location again of an
endangered person
and within the city. Flock cameras are
strategically placed along public roads.
We do not have the capability to move
those cameras as far as panning. They
are stationary and uh they're simply
photographing just as if you had an
officer stationed on a highway watching
for a vehicle. It's the same process.
So far, there are no flock cameras in
neighborhoods, but it's not not an
option.
These cameras can be moved into
neighborhoods. That's correct.
It could be. Yes. If if we have a high
crime area that we need to uh identify
the criminal element, if we have a
number of burglaries in a specific
location. LPD clarifying that it will be
directed at a public street and not
point in the direction of a person's
home. And since adding these cameras,
the department has found much success
with them.
In fact, there are at least a couple of
murders that we've experienced within
the last couple of years here in in Luk
that had it not been for the flock
system, I don't know that we would have
ever solved them.
LPD also tells me they are actively
working on creating a website where the
community can find information about
their catches with flock the flock
cameras and where folks can find success
stories with