The Wichita City Council has approved funding to expand the city's crime-fighting efforts.
The city of Wichita will purchase 31 Flock license plate readers to add to its network of 160. The city will also purchase more gunshot detection devices, to double the coverage from 2 square miles to 4.
Captain Aaron Moses says the equipment has resulted in $5.4 million in recovered stolen property and has helped solve multiple violent crimes. He also added that the 5-year average of drive-by shootings has been reduced by 12%.
While some have expressed concerns over privacy issues with the technology, Captain Moses explained the pictures taken by the Flock system can only be seen by entering a valid case number and that the images are purged after 30 days, unless needed in a trial.
Ten of the license plate readers will cost $151,500 over 5 years. An additional 21 devices and the gunshot detection device expansion will cost $186,150 in the first year and $183 thousand in Year 2. The equipment will be placed in crime hot-spots around the city.