(WAND)- Hundreds of thousands of your taxpayer dollars are being spent fighting crime each year. From license plate cameras, to audio censors, private companies behind the advanced technology make big claims to back up their even bigger price tags.
 
Decatur, Springfield and Champaign city councils have all voted to lease Flock cameras, or Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), for their police departments.
 
"We strongly believe in Flock, its a great tool for us- and we're happy to have it," Lt. Scott Rosenbury, of the Decatur Police Department, told WAND News.
 
Decatur first signed a contract with Flock in 2021, spending $165,000 for 60 ALPRs. In 2022, council voted to add 40 more cameras, bringing the annual contract to $262,000.
 
"Flock is being used daily here at the Decatur Police Department," Lt. Rosenbury explained.
 
Springfield Police is also using Flock cameras. They spend just over $200,000 a year to lease 86 cameras. Champaign spends just shy of $100,000 annually for 46 ALPRs.
 
But this isn't the only technology subscription that departments are buying. Springfield and Champaign Police also have contracts for gunshot detection equipment.
 
"To me that's a very powerful tool that's important for Springfield citizens to keep them safe," Springfield Police Chief Ken Scarlette told WAND News.
 
In June, Springfield City Council renewed, and expanded, its contract with ShotSpotter. This will not cost $440,000 a year.
 
"Its a multi-layered approach to solving crime. When you have several components of technology, and those all overlap- it just gives you every opportunity to solve crime," Chief Scarlette explained.
 
Champaign is using a free one-year trial of Flock's Raven Gunshot Detection Technology. But if the city decides to sign on for a subscription in February, its projected to cost $25,000 per square mile, plus the cost to lease equipment.
 
WAND News started to investigate whether this technology was worth the cost to taxpayers. ShotSpotter said its technology has been credited with a 36% drop in homicides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a 48% reduction in shootings in an area of Cincinnati, Ohio. Flock boasts a similar dramatic reduction in crime rates in many of the cities where the ALPRs are used.
 
"We might not see that as a total crime decrease, but we are making arrests off of Flock," Lt. Rosenbury explained.
 
Homicide rates not have changed dramatically in Springfield, Decatur or Champaign, sin the installing the technology. Aggravated assault and battery calls have not significantly dropped either. But Lt. Rosenbury said Decatur Police is getting its money's worth.
 
"If we don't have any witnesses, and we have a call of shots fired, and we find evidence of a crime- we find shell casings- we're immediately checking Flock, our patrol officers are checking Flock," Lt. Rosenbury added.
 
He said Flock cameras are used as a starting point to spot getaway cars and suspected vehicles.
 
"We have a potential vehicle of interest, then that information is getting passed along to our street crimes unit- who was driving it? was it involved in any other incidents?" Lt. Rosenbury said.
 
He said this is leading to real arrests in the city. Just last month, Decatur Police believe a pair was pick pocketing women and maxing out their credit cards. Then police in Iowa started getting similar reports and spotted the car they were using. The departments teamed up to use Flock and were able to find the suspects in a hotel room in Champaign.
 
"Would we have known that Iowa police departments had active cases on these two subjects that came into our city- probably not," Lt. Rosenbury explained.
 
Chief Scarlette said ShotSpotter is showing similar results.
 
"I have 4 very specific examples that I could cite, that happened in the past couple months how ShotSpotter took our officers specifically to a crime scene- and because of the investigative prowess of those officers, they were able to investigate and ultimately solve, and place an individual under arrest, for firing a firearm within our community," Chief Scarlette explained.
 
With more criminals behind bars, police said their communities are becoming safer.
 
Champaign Police declined to speak with WAND News about their use of Flock and Raven Gunshot Detection technology.
 
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