ADRIAN — Both Adrian and Lenawee County may soon join the list of communities that are abandoning the use of Flock Safety’s license plate cameras amid growing public controversy.

Adrian police chief Vince Emrick told the Adrian City Commission on Sept. 8 that while the cameras have been helpful in solving some crimes, he’s not sure they’re the most effective use of funds.

“It has value. It definitely has value,” he said.

But the question, Emrick said, is whether that value matches the $32,500 per year the city is spending on the service.

“I’ve had a number of conversations with the sheriff, and between the two of our agencies we’re not seeing the return that we thought we would,” he said.

The Adrian Police Department has had Flock cameras for about three years., Emrick said the department receives about 15,000 calls for service every year, and has queried the Flock network for an average of 79 cases per year. Many of those 79 queries didn’t lead to any results, so “those aren’t even 79 success stories,” he said.

Emrick said the biggest case the department has solved with the help of Flock cameras was an incident when somebody grabbed a bag of money from an armored vehicle and was eventually arrested in another state.

Flock cameras take a picture of every car that passes them. In addition to recording license plate numbers, the system uses artificial intelligence to help identify vehicles based on their appearance. Agencies can search the Flock network to see if a car they’re looking for has been spotted in other jurisdictions — which is a big part of the system’s usefulness, but has also intensified concerns about its abuse.

For example, a police officer in Kentucky was recently arrested and charged with querying the Flock system more than 2,000 times to track the movements of his ex-girlfriend. And an investigation by the newspaper USA Today resulted in the arrest or discipline of 19 law enforcement officers for misusing the system.

According to Michigan Public, a number of Michigan communities, such as Clawson, Ferndale, Westland and Milford, have recently ended their contracts with Flock. In Wisconsin, at least a dozen communities suspended their use of the cameras in just the first week of September. And in Pennsylvania, at least nine bills have been introduced in the state legislature to either limit or ban license plate cameras in the state.

Lenawee County’s neighbor, Monroe County, is abandoning Flock, with county commissioners having voted earlier this month to end the use of more than 40 cameras.

That trend, Emrick said, is making the network less and less useful.

“As time goes on and there are fewer and fewer agencies involved, we get less and less of a benefit from using that,” he said.

Emrick added that he believes a greater benefit to public safety would be achieved by putting the money toward elevated crosswalks to slow traffic in downtown Adrian.

Emrick said he consulted with city attorney Burke Castleberry and determined that the city can legally end its use of Flock cameras if the commission chooses.

The city has 10 Flock cameras. Emrick noted that some cameras in Adrian are operated not by the city, but by private businesses.

The criminal justice subcommittee of the Lenawee County Commission also discussed the cameras at its Sept. 3 meeting.

“Are we getting a bang for our buck? I’m just trying to figure out if the expense is worth it as we move into a pretty tight budget here,” county commission chairman Jim Van Doren asked Sheriff Troy Bevier during that meeting. 

“We’re finding, at this point, that we’re probably not getting as big a bang for our buck as we thought we were going to get,” Bevier replied.

Bevier said he understands that the cameras are unpopular with many residents. And with other areas choosing to drop their contracts, he said, “the return on investment just gets smaller and smaller.”

Bevier said he is consulting with legal counsel to determine if Lenawee County can terminate its contract.