Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
License plate recognition cameras have been given the OK for purchase and installation by the Clovis city commission.
Commissioners unanimously approved the $58,400 expenditure for 16 cameras at Thursday’s regular session.
Clovis Police Department Deputy Chief Trevor Thron outlined the need for the LPRs in the city in an email to the news before the commission meeting.
“Flock Safety’s License Plate Recognition cameras operate by capturing images of passing vehicles’ license plates. These images are then processed using AI to isolate and analyze the plate characters, along with the vehicle make, model, and color, and converts all that into searchable text data,” Thron said.
Thron noted the data is cross-referenced with databases containing information about stolen vehicles, wanted individuals, or other flagged criteria.
“When a match is found, the system alerts CPD within seconds of the camera capturing this data, allowing law enforcement to respond to the area where the alert was triggered, which enhances community safety and allows us to solve crimes more efficiently and quickly,” Thron wrote.
The plan approved by the commission calls for the purchase of 16 cameras to be distributed around the city based on crime data collected last year, according to Thron.
Thron wrote LPRs are being used around the state of New Mexico, along with parts of Texas.
Thron addressed those who are concerned about privacy and the LPRs.
“It’s important to recognize that the focus of these systems is on enhancing public safety and deterring crime. These cameras do not do facial recognition and these cameras do not provide law enforcement with any personally identifiable information,” Thron wrote.
He noted that only vehicle data is gathered.
“Furthermore, all data that these cameras collect automatically deletes every 30 days on a rolling scale,” Thron wrote.
Part of Thron’s presentation involved crime statistics from 2023:
• 29,502 calls for service
• 5,666 reports taken
• 108 vehicle thefts
• 573 theft reports
• 273 burglaries
• 101 aggravated assaults
• 15 robberies
• 9 murders
Commissioner Megan Palla, while supporting the purchase of the cameras, had questions about privacy which were addressed by Thron and representatives from Flock Safety.
Commissioner Gene Porter had questions about replacement costs if cameras are damaged.
Depending on how the damage occurred the costs would be handled by the person at fault for an accident that might have damaged the camera to costs built into the annual fee to Flock Safety.
Thron told commissioners the LPR camera system should be up and running by July.
Also at Thursday’s session commissioners approved the city’s involvement in a Trap, Neuter, Return program to deal with the city’s feral cat problem.
The city will be receiving a $18,750.00 grant from the New Mexico Board of Veterinary Medicine and a group named “Best Friends” to help fund the program.
Morris had two declarations during the session. One declared February as “Black History Month” in Clovis, the other declared the month as “2-1-1 Month” recognizing the United Way of Eastern New Mexico’s 2-1-1 service.
