‘Worth its weight in gold’ Flock Safety proven instrumental for Trussville PD

In 2019, when the Trussville City Council first approved real-time surveillance and investigative data captured by cameras in the city, Police Chief Eric Rush almost jumped from his seat to high-five Fire Chief Tim Shotts.

Nearly three years later, Rush is still just as thrilled with the Flock Safety technology that has proven instrumental in identifying suspects and solving crimes. Flock Safety cameras take snapshot photos of license plates when motion is detected. The cameras include license plate reader technology and a “Hot List,” which Rush said police can use to be alerted when a stolen vehicle, person with outstanding arrest warrants, a vehicle linked to a missing person and more are caught on camera.

Officers receive an alert within seconds with a location and vehicle description, which they then investigate.

“It’s really been way better than what I thought,” Rush said. “The technology has just changed the way we do everything.”

Rush said Flock Safety has helped in the recovery of more stolen vehicles and tracking the patterns of criminals. There were 56 interactions that were initiated through Flock Safety hits in 2021 in Trussville, Rush said. Sixteen stolen vehicles were recovered. Flock Safety has been utilized in some way in more than half the cases Trussville police investigate, Rush said, often giving the department some sort of evidence to work from.

“Otherwise, before this, you wouldn’t have anything,” Rush said. “No tag. Just a white four-door car or whatever. I use the term ‘game-changer’ a lot, but it really did change the way that we do things. It’s at the forefront of everything.”

Rush said there are 20 Flock Safety cameras in Trussville, but the Trussville Police Department has access to more than 800 cameras shared by various police departments across Alabama and neighboring states.

In April, the Flock Safety technology paid off in a big way in Trussville. On April 16, Trussville police received a Flock Safety hit out of Harris County, Texas, on a stolen vehicle. Because of the hit, officers were able to locate the vehicle on North Chalkville Road and attempted to conduct a traffic stop. The suspect refused to stop and led officers on a short pursuit, ending in a minor traffic collision at Boulder Drive.

When officers attempted to make contact with the suspect after the collision, he did not respond. Once officers cleared the vehicle, it appeared that the suspect had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The suspect was identified as Francisco Gonzalez, wanted for murder in the killing of 27-year-old Saymo Pieternelle. According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, a witness observed a male pull another male out of a vehicle and leave him in front of an apartment complex in Houston, Texas. The victim had suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said another homicide victim, Phalyssia Sanders, was linked to Francisco Gonzalez, who “apparently confessed to family members about both murders before fleeing the state.”

Rush said that Francisco Gonzalez was apparently fleeing to New Jersey, where he was originally from. He stopped in Trussville to fill his vehicle up with gas. Without the Flock Safety technology, he likely would have gotten away.

“Probably makes it all the way to New Jersey,” Rush said. “They would have eventually gotten him, I believe, but it would have been much longer of a time frame.”

Rush said he believes Springville was the first city in Alabama to begin using Flock Safety. Trussville came next. Monitoring just three cameras initially, he saw quickly that the technology was a game-changer.

“It’s mind-blowing, really, because it just changed everything, and Flock knows it,” Rush said. “They know that technology is worth its weight in gold.”

Like much technology today, Flock Safety works almost like a streaming service. Rush said Trussville is paying for a service, not the cameras themselves. Flock Safety makes any needed updates, repairs and replacements.

“It’s really a good program because the way technology changes so much, if you were to purchase those cameras, they’d be obsolete in six months,” he said. “It’s really the best way for them and us. That was a problem forever in law enforcement, like you’d buy video cameras for the cars, the latest and greatest stuff, and six months later it was the bottom of the barrel.”

Trussville City Councilman Ben Short, a Trussville police detective prior to winning a seat on the council, said he remembers sitting in on a Flock Safety presentation at a Metro Area Crime Center meeting a few years ago.

“I was impressed then and continue to be amazed at the success agencies in our area are having with the tool,” Short said. “Trussville PD was one of the first big adopters, and I’m grateful Chief Rush saw the need when I presented it to him and for the former council providing the funding to make it a reality. Flock has been and continues to be a successful tool that not only helps our officers but helps provide real-time information that can be a huge benefit from an officer safety standpoint. I’m glad we are having success, and Trussville PD’s usage of the tool continues to show that it was taxpayer dollars well spent.”

Rush said policing when he first became a law enforcement officer was largely based on gut instinct. The future of the profession is pretty much here already, he said.

“I’m excited to see what comes out next because this technology has taken off so fast that it’s mind-blowing, really,” Rush said. “There’s no telling what they’ll come up with next.”