County-managed surveillance cameras give Baxter police another investigative tool, with a recently installed camera on First Avenue expanding coverage.
Baxter Police Chief Brandon Herren said the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office added the Flock camera to supplement an existing unit near the interstate. The Sheriff’s Office maintains direct access to the system and alerts local officers when a flagged vehicle is detected.
“We have a really good relationship with the Sheriff’s Office,” Herren said. “If it was a situation where we needed access, we would just go through them. We don’t have our own logins, per se, but if we needed something, they would be able to help assist us with that.”
Herren said the arrangement has not negatively affected investigations, despite Baxter officers lacking their own login credentials.
“I would say that it would be pretty instant,” Herren said. “They would just need to call the Sheriff’s Office and talk to dispatch. We would give them the tag number and they would view it through their system and I would say it would be relatively quick. I’m not sure how much of a difference it would be if the officer had direct access or not.”
Herren said there have been no formal discussions about providing Baxter officers with independent access. He said the sheriff determines where cameras are placed throughout the county based on law enforcement needs.
“I think that the cameras are beneficial, yes,” Herren said. “I do think that these cameras do help and aid in law enforcement. I do not think that they are meant to track every time somebody goes down the road to go fishing or whatever.”
Herren said investigators can use vehicle descriptions and timeframes to identify potential leads when witnesses cannot provide a license plate number.
“A lot of just say ‘I just don’t like them,’ but they don’t really have a lot of information to say why they don’t like them” Herren said. “I know it’s a hot topic, and I’m all about keeping people’s right intact and everything, but as far as I understand, I do not believe these cameras violate anything.”
“The cell phone that you carry in your pocket can track you way better than these cameras do. And there’s a lot of people with a cell phone in their pocket.”