Peoria police credit Flock cameras for helping find vulnerable man

Peoria police are crediting automatic license plate readers with helping them find an 82-year-old man who left home Monday for a doctor’s appointment, but never showed up.

The man is in cognitive decline and his wife called Peoria police for help after he didn’t return home for several hours.

Investigators narrowed their search for the man using license plate readers, which showed he’d been to Paradise Valley and returned to the area around Sun City.

“Within two hours and 30 minutes of us getting the call, patrol officers were able to find that vehicle, stop it, get help to this individual who ended up going to the hospital to get some medical attention,” said Cmdr. Jason Tarrant.

Peoria has about 80 license plate readers made by the company Flock, which take roughly 1.3 million images monthly.

Peoria police say automatic license plate readers are helping authorities find missing and vulnerable people.

Tarrant said he would not have been found without license plate readers because investigators would have no idea where he went.

“We’ve deployed this technology on numerous other occasions that were alike or similar. And we actually were able to stop people and reunite them with their family as far south as just north of Tucson,” Tarrant said.

Nearly a dozen Arizona cities have terminated Flock programs, citing public concerns the surveillance tool can be misused.