By Esteban Fernandez
For Times West Virginian
Fairmont — Marion County Sheriff’s Office Det. Matt Pigott spent hours in 2022 going door to door collecting video footage after a fatal shooting in Carolina.
In 2022, a gang-related murder took place in the parking lot of a Carolina apartment complex. One of the few clues investigators had to go on were reports of a large black truck. Armed with video footage from private security systems he collected, Pigott spent weeks trying to locate the truck.
Had the Sheriff’s Office had access to License Plate Reader cameras at the time, Pigott said, it would have been easier to locate the suspected vehicle.
“If someone’s affected by a violent crime, this is a great tool,” Marion County Sheriff Roger Cunningham said. “We’re not here to violate people’s civil rights and Fourth Amendment. That’s not who we are. I didn’t take office to do that. We pushed back on that facial recognition, because I don’t want it. It’s not useful to us.”
The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, and requires warrants to be based on probable cause and specific descriptions.
Four years since the shooting, Marion County’s use of License Plate Reader Cameras has come under fire in recent weeks. Among the concerns floated by members of the community are fears over surveillance, tracking and misuse. However, misconceptions also exist over how the Marion County Sheriff’s utilizes the technology.
Pigott provided a demonstration of the technology created by Flock Safety. The first misconception — that there’s a constant live feed coming from each of the cameras — is not true. When Pigott logs into the camera’s system, a blank screen greets the detective. The portal doesn’t display a video feed from any of the county’s 41 License Plate Reader cameras.
Cunningham said the Sheriff’s Office never bought into what Flock calls its Condor system, which provides live views. Furthermore, one of the search fields requires the officer to provide a reason for the search in the system before running the search.
He said Marion County primarily uses the cameras for locating stolen vehicles, combating drug trafficking, assisting with criminal investigations after the fact, and locating missing or wanted individuals.
The system is also connected to national police databases so it can aid in the search for flagged stolen vehicles, wanted persons, missing children and other crimes.
Pigott said only officers with investigative roles have access to the system. He also conducts a system audit every 30 days to ensure they have been used properly. The system only retains information for 30 days. The system tracks vehicle license plates, as well as make, model and color of the vehicle. Those were the only search fields available.
Pigott ran a sample search on one of the department’s vehicles for the past seven days, which showed snapshots of when the vehicle passed by the camera. It displayed photos from the rear of the vehicle and the interior of vehicles in the snapshots were not visible.
“We’re not looking inside vehicles,” Pigott said. “Our views that we get from this license plate capture, you can’t even see how many people were in the vehicle, or who’s driving, you can’t really see anything about the interior of the vehicle.”
Cunningham said the system did not have a way to search by name, and indeed, none of the search fields that were displayed had an entry by name.
“We’re not creating a database, monitoring people where they go and what they’re doing,” Pigott said. “I don’t know what you drive. I have no way to go in that system right now, I can’t type your name in and pull up your vehicle and where it’s at. I can only put in information that’s related to what I get in advance in a criminal investigation.”
The department is also taking cybersecurity seriously. To access the system, Pigott first has to login to a Virtual Private Network, which creates a secure, encrypted connection to the system. On top of that, Pigott is required to use two-factor authentication, which provides an extra layer of security, to complete his login. Pigott acknowledged nothing on the internet is ever truly “unhackable,” but the Sheriff’s Office has at least made itself a hard target.
Cunningham added the data is not stored internally, but is held in a cloud-based system that meets the standards set by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Service.
Cunningham has already had success using the Flock system. The department was able to quickly track down one man who made threats of suicide and save his life. Officers also credit the cameras with helping to save a girl who had been kidnapped.
Pigott indicated the cameras can’t be used as shorthand for old fashioned police work. He said any officer can obtain a search warrant, but he wants to make sure those searches are solid enough to survive evidentiary hearings and juries.
Part of the Sheriff’s Office policies require deputies to verify that the cameras properly identified the right vehicle during the course of an investigation. Pigott said he still wants officers to use their investigative skills to ensure they have the right person.
As for why Flock Safety, specifically? Pigott said it’s because other companies required law enforcement agencies to buy the camera outright. If it was stolen, the agency was responsible for replacing it. However, Flock works under a subscription model, that requires Flock to replace stolen or damaged cameras.
Cunningham also offered a stark warning for any officers who misuse the system — he said they will end up in the chair opposite his and be in line for termination.
“I do not like corruption,” Cunningham said. “I don’t care who you are. If it’s here, and I find out about it, they come to me. And they’ll be terminated. Because I’m not going to put up with garbage.”
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