Council Recap: New enhanced license plate reading cameras

Published on February 26, 2025

At their Tuesday, March 25 evening meeting, the Lakewood City Council approved a free six-month trial of a next generation of 58 enhanced automatic license plate reading (ALPR) cameras and 10 pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) cameras to be placed around the city. For the past 13 years, Lakewood has had ALPR and PTZ cameras around Lakewood Center and many entrances to the city that quickly identify wanted vehicles coming into the city so that the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station can quickly respond and take the vehicles and suspects into custody, before they can commit crimes in Lakewood. 

The next generation of ALPR cameras come with audio capabilities and other “smart features” that can identify and locate the sound of gunshots, illegal fireworks use, and street racing and the burnout sound of street takeovers. The “smart” video can now also identify a vehicle based on color, make and model and other features…and not just a license plate number…so that a vehicle without plates will trigger a notice at the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station.

“We have been in discussions with a leading company in this field—Flock Safety, Inc.—whose system is used by several other cities served by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and they have offered to give Lakewood a six-month free trial of their system, which they will mount on our traffic signal and street light poles,” said City Manager Thaddeus McCormack. “It will give our city and Sheriff’s Station the opportunity to test out the system and measure its value in Lakewood. Then we can make a decision about whether to move forward on a longer-term, paid basis with the system.”

“One other benefit of the Flock system,” said McCormack, “is that it has a community partnership component where individual residents and private businesses can voluntarily choose to provide the feeds from their video cameras to law enforcement so that their neighborhood or business can be viewed as part of the overall network…facilitating law enforcement response and investigation if there is suspicious or criminal activity in the area.”

“We think this new, smart video system can be another valuable tool in Lakewood’s toolbox to keep our community as safe as it possibly can be, which of course is one of Lakewood’s most enduring community values,” said McCormack.