Note: This story has been edited to clarify the funding sources for the new Flock Safety cameras and gunshot detection system. – KtE

Whenever an AMBER Alert goes off on phones around the state, they usually come with a variety of information: child’s name and age, a description, and potentially even a car type and tag number.

Those tag numbers are also sent out to computer systems statewide that utilizing cameras setup around communities. They can be used to track and find people who have absconded with a child, adults or elderly who have gone missing, or partnering with other law enforcement agencies seeking a suspect. Even when a car is stolen as well.

In recent weeks, the City of Cedartown is the latest to add these cameras up in dozens of spots around communities where wrongdoers of all kinds might try to avoid the eagle eyes of law enforcement.

Flock Safety cameras (the company is actually Flock, it is not an acronym) on poles in neighborhoods around Cedartown have gone up, and are providing the Police Department another valuable tool in fighting crime.

Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome said this system – along with a gunshot detection system also on poles – have been installed in order to be able to track vehicles that are being actively sought by law enforcement for major crimes, or who might be reported missing and behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Whenever an officer is nearby one of the cameras on patrol, the system can provide a notification to their in-car computer to report a tag number that corresponds with a driver who might have warrants for a variety of reasons, if a car is stolen, or might have violations like a suspended registration or insurance.

So when a suspect in an AMBER Alert, for instance, drives by one of the cameras the information goes out to law enforcement immediately to help track down the missing child.

The cameras do not have any radar installed like the RedSpeed cameras around Cedartown Middle and Cedartown High, and aren’t going to send out tickets when drivers go by them.

The intention of the department isn’t to necessarily pull someone over for traffic violations on first glance either, Newsome said. They hope to have the camera system available when someone is fleeing from police and officers can’t keep up for some reason to track their whereabouts or last known location. Newsome also noted that the cameras are a valuable tool for when people go missing and a Mattie’s Call goes out to first responders in communities.

“We understand people will have problems with cameras going up around the city and believe they might be getting a ticket if they speed by one of the poles, or might get summoned to court if they go by a camera and don’t have a working tag light is not the case,” Newsome said. “The department is utilizing these cameras as another tool like any other on our belt in order to find individuals being sought for serious matters, and we intend to use the cameras in that way and do so responsibly.”

The same goes for a new gunshot detection system also installed since the start of the year around the city limits.

A series of microphones on poles are linked up and fed into a system that processes the audio returned and can triangulate the sound of a gunshot. Once the sound of a shot is detected, Cedartown Police personnel are provided a notification with a potential location by phone and in their in-car computers.

The idea is to give law enforcement and emergency medical personnel a location to seek out, and provide one more set of ears listening out for serious trouble that needs immediate attention.

Part of the new camera system was paid for by the RedSpeed speed cameras setup on the Highway 27 Bypass at Cedartown Middle, and another on Highway 278 at the high school. The fines generated from those cameras paid for installations around local parks.

Newsome said the department received a Governor’s Office Safety Grant for the gunshot detection system and the rest of the Flock Systems installed around the city. That grant additionally funds 2 full time police officers and an administrative position at the Cedartown Police headquarters.

Fines generated by the speed cameras have also provided other law enforcement tools and equipment, ranging from speed limit signs that tell drivers how fast they are going to encourage them to slow down to tactical ballistic shields meant to be used by officers in active shooter situations.