TOOELE, Utah — The Tooele City Police Department is looking to cut down on property crimes.
They shared numbers from the past two years, which show destruction of property and vandalism cases went up in 2021, with 351 cases versus 332 the year before.
The police department's monthly all offense total stats show that other crimes, like burglaries, theft from motor vehicles and shoplifting stayed pretty consistent, year over year.
To curb the crime, the Tooele City Police Department has placed 10 Flock Safety cameras throughout the whole city limits.
"It looks for license plates and it will read those license plates but it also looks for vehicle fingerprints, when I say fingerprint, it is kind of those identifying features, it's a blue van," said Sgt. Shawn Sagers with Tooele City Police.
"It also does amber alerts, silver alerts missing endangered people, missing children," said Lt. Jeremy Hansen with Tooele City Police.
The department is hoping it can serve as an extra set of eyes for its officers.
Lt. Hansen says they commonly take between ten to fifteen calls per officer per shift during the summer months.
"This is going to give us and be a resource for us that we don't have to necessarily be everywhere at once," he said.
Officers must have a case number to complete a search on the camera's software at any time. He says this is to make sure the system isn't misused in any way.
He says officers will log on at the beginning of their shift and it will send them a text message or an email, which will notify them of an alert or hit on a license plate or vehicle description.
Afterward, a post will be made on their Facebook page about the cameras on Monday. While some people commented about this being a positive thing, others posed concerns about the camera's capabilities and being able to see into someone's car.
"It's simply looking for the license plate and the type of vehicle that it is, we're not trying to in any of the photos that we've gotten, we haven't been able to identify a single driver, male or female," said Lt. Hansen.
Tracy Gossett is the owner of Fallen Sky Stone, which opened last year.
Gossett has called Tooele home for twenty years. She says in the past few years, she's noticed crime has been on the rise.
"I think one night we had 30 cars in our neighborhood get broken into," said Gossett.
This is why she says she is grateful for the addition of the cameras.
"I just think it's good that they're doing that, so we feel safer in our community because we shouldn't feel unsafe," said Gossett.
While Lt. Hansen says they have 10 cameras right now, he says six of those are being used on a trial basis through the end of this month.
They plan to buy four cameras, which will cost $15,000 and be paid for through taxpayer money. An additional camera will be sponsored by a local business.
Holly Beilin, a spokeswoman for Flock Safety says more than 2,000 communities in more than 40 states across the United States are utilizing these cameras and their technology. That includes, according to Beilin, more than 1,200 law enforcement agencies.
