Avondale Estates City Commission approves contract for license plate readers
Avondale Estates City Hall. Photo by Dean Hesse.
Avondale Estates, GA — The Avondale Estates City Commission, at its Jan. 24 regular meeting, approved a contract with Flock Safety to install 10 automated license plate readers in the city.
Flock Safety’s system will send alerts to officers of wanted persons, stolen vehicles, and individuals and vehicles of interest involved in crimes.
“The main thing we provide is the license plate look-up and the vehicle description,” said Robert Lacey with Flock at the Jan. 10 meeting. “One thing Flock is not doing is we’re not applying any facial recognition or any personal look-up.”
The cameras will not act as red light or speed cameras and will not issue citations, Police Chief Harry Hess previously told Decaturish.
“They are solely automated license plate readers that send data up to a server that’s in turn run through [the Georgia Crime Information Center] and [National Crime Information Center] and then receive any notifications on our cameras, and our cameras only,” Hess said.
The contract would be for two years for 10 cameras. It would cost $63,250 for the two years, and the city would use APRA funds to cover the cost.
City Manager Patrick Bryant said during the Jan. 24 meeting that there were a few reasons city staff brought this recommendation to the city commission. Avondale Estates is currently a hole in DeKalb County as the county and other cities, including Clarkston and Decatur, use Flock cameras.
“The continuity of adding our own cameras will help not only us conduct more expedient investigations, but also would assist with missing persons and assist with other jurisdictions who are investigating cases,” he said.
Several of the cameras will be installed along College Avenue/North Avondale Road/U.S. 278.
The city will begin construction on the U.S. 278 complete street project, and three of 10 cameras will be impacted by the construction. Those three will have to be removed once construction begins and then reinstalled, and Flock has agreed to handle the re-installations at no additional cost.
In other business, the city commission approved an underground easement with Georgia Power at the Town Green for underground lines, a pole, and a transformer box. The utility would provide power to the commercial development.
“This will include the positioning go of a transformer next to the development that we negotiated a turning of with Georgia Power for aesthetic viewing purposes,” Bryant said.
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