Editor:
Platte County Commissioners and the Sheriff might want to check the Republican playbook on Flock cameras, because Platte County appears to be heading in the opposite direction.
Republican governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are now pushing back against mass license-plate surveillance and raising concerns about Americans’ privacy and constitutional rights.
Meanwhile, here in Platte County, Republican commissioners just put their signatures on a commission order seeking additional taxpayer funding for more Flock surveillance.
Apparently, limited government and protecting Americans from government surveillance are good Republican principles elsewhere, but not Platte County.
The Bill of Rights isn’t supposed to become optional when surveillance technology is convenient. You didn’t inherit this surveillance system. You just voted to expand it.
Maybe it’s worth asking why Republicans elsewhere are trying to put the brakes on this technology while Platte County Republicans are stepping on the gas.
I did some further research regarding the correlation of crime data and county camera density for ALPRs (Automated License Plate Readers…aka Flock Cameras). The data is alarming for taxpayers.
If ALPRs reduce crime, we should see some relationship between camera density and crime rates. In four Kansas City area counties, we don’t.
County ALPR cameras per 10,000 residents:
Platte County, MO — 4.5
Johnson County, KS — 7.4
Jackson County, MO — 8.1
Wyandotte County, KS — 9.3
Official 2024 Kansas crime data makes the point particularly clear.
Johnson County recorded approximately 2.0 violent crimes per 1,000 residents.
Wyandotte County, despite having more cameras per capita, recorded approximately 10.4 violent crimes per 1,000. That’s more than five times the violent crime rate with greater ALPR density.
Meanwhile, Platte County has by far the lowest camera density of these four counties without correspondingly higher crime.
This doesn’t mean ALPRs can’t help investigating crimes after they occur. It means the current data shows no correlation between greater ALPR camera density and lower crime. And that’s an important distinction.
If we’re spending tax dollars in the name of public safety, those dollars should be focused first on preventing crime, not simply building an increasingly comprehensive surveillance system to investigate it afterward.
Before we buy more cameras and track more innocent Americans, show taxpayers the measurable reduction in crime. If these cameras prevent crime, the data should show it. The data doesn’t.
Andrew Champlain
Platte County resident
