FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Some residents in Federal Way say they are enduring more crime in their neighborhood. Now one homeowner’s association is fighting back with technology, hoping to deter crime.
Last week the Westridge HOA in Federal Way purchased and installed five Flock Safety cameras, which are license plate reading cameras.
The HOA has more than 200 homes and the vice president of the HOA said crime has been a problem recently.
“Break-ins, thefts, there's been vandalism,” said Vic Martinez. “There's been graffiti through here, there's been cars that have been broken into.”
Concern over these types of crimes is why the HOA said they decided to take action by installing the cameras. They hope it will not only help solve crime, but the main goal is to deter it in the first place.
“As soon as people drive into the neighborhood, they see this pole with the big red signage that says ‘Notice 24/7 Video Recording,'” said Martinez.
The president of the HOA said earlier this year they were trying to decide how to best prevent crime, and after talking to law enforcement and city leaders, they decided purchasing the cameras was the best route to keep the neighborhood safe.
“We want people to know if you come here to commit a crime, we’re watching,” said Thomas Orr, the president of the Westridge HOA. “We needed to do something different, and in talking with the police and the mayor, it was really clear that they can only do so much.”
Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell said Westridge is the first HOA in the city to install a Flock Safety system.
“This is really a great example of a neighborhood that came together and said, ‘We want to go in this direction and we want to take the initiative,'” said Mayor Ferrell.
Ferrell said right now the Westridge cameras are not connected to the city’s camera system, but the HOA said they can share video with police when needed.
The city itself has three or four license plate readers and around 200 Safe City cameras, according to Ferrell.
Mayor Ferrell said the city does not have any Flock Safety cameras right now but hopes to get their systems in the future. He said he is asking the legislature for $200,000 for the city to be able to utilize Flock Safety systems.
“That’s really the benefit of technology like this, is that we can prevent crime from getting much worse,” said Ferrell. “We can track down individuals when a major crime occurs.”
When it comes to privacy, Ferrell said the safety benefits outweigh concerns people may have about privacy.
“This does not come with any facial recognition software, that's not a direction we're going in,” said Ferrell. “And anything that occurs out on a city street is really open for view and really, you know, in plain view and I think the goal ought to be to make a safer community.”
That's the goal people who live in Westridge have, a hope that the cameras will deter criminals.
“When they know there are cameras around, they're going to think twice,” said Martinez.
Ferrell noted that Flock Safety cameras in nearby cities helped to solve the case of a one-year-old child that was kidnapped from Federal Way earlier this year.