CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — The Cheektowaga Police Department is now using new technology to read license plates.
The Flock Safety system is an automated camera that captures a vehicle's plate number as soon as it drives by. The police department shares the data with the National Criminal Intelligence Center for real-time information on stolen vehicles.
That technology was utilized recently to capture a suspect.
Cheektowaga Police say your license plate data is saved for up to 30 days before being purged from the system.
The town initially installed 10 of the Flock system license plate readers in 2022. The readers were in years past mounted on police cars to detect drivers with traffic violations. But the expanded technology allows more accessible data which is carefully controlled and monitored for motorists' privacy concerns.