California Neighborhood Identifies a Drive-By Shooting Suspect

The Challenge: a drive-by shooting targets a bicyclist on a busy road

On a major thoroughfare in a city near San Francisco, a car drove past a bicyclist and fired shots from an air or pellet gun before driving off. The bicyclist sustained minor injuries and was able to identify the vehicle as a white Mercedes.

This incident happened outside a neighborhood that had recently been protected with three Flock Safety license plate reading cameras that captured images of vehicles and objects exiting their street.

The Solution: calling on the nearby neighborhood

The bicyclist immediately reported the drive-by shooting to local police. Thanks to strong community partnerships, the police knew the nearby neighborhood had Flock Safety cameras installed.

Police were also familiar with Flock Safety features that allow authorized users to search images captured by timeframe, vehicle type (car, truck, motorcycle, etc), and vehicle color.

The police department quickly reached out to the neighborhood with details on the drive-by shooting and requested permission to view images from their Flock Safety cameras.

Since this neighborhood had installed cameras to improve not just their own safety but the safety of their community, they gave permission to both the police department and to Flock Safety’s Crime Team to help look through images.

They wanted to hand every possible piece of actionable evidence to police so they could help bring justice to the victim.

The Results: finding clear images of the suspect’s vehicle

With details of the make and color of the vehicle, and with permission from the neighborhood, Flock’s Crime Team narrowed down the search to a white car within a specified timeframe.

Example of a Flock Safety portal search using build, color, and timeframe

Flock Safety’s Crime Team was able to find a clear image of a white Mercedes that matched the timeframe of the bicyclist’s report. Together with the neighborhood, Flock Safety was able to hand actionable evidence over to police.

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