The City of Allentown announced a partnership with Flock Safety in a press release this week. The technology company works to provide public safety by creating collaboration between neighborhoods, communities, and law enforcement.
Partnership between the company and the city will involve a sort-of wide scale security system. Two portions of the system – license plate recognition cameras and audio detection systems – were already installed over the past month.
Cameras will now be able to detect license plates on stolen cars or of known wanted suspects and send rapid alerts to law enforcement. Alerts can also be sent if a plate associated with a missing person is detected.
The audio detection system, named the Raven, can recognize and alert police to gunshots. Short audio clips of the gunshots will be saved and provided to law enforcement as well. License plate recognition cameras in the area of the shots will be turned on upon detection.
The system is only triggered by gunshots, not by other sounds like voices.
So far, Allentown has installed 67 license plate cameras and enough Raven audio detection to cover a square mile.
The city ensured residents that any data collected will belong solely to the city and will never be shared with any third party individuals or groups. They also promised that the devices are not intended for minor traffic or parking violations.
This new technology is funded by grants from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Allentown’s police department was given $2.6 million to improve cameras, mobile license plate readers, and more.
