Flock Security Cameras

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Neighbors,

The community now has Flock cameras installed at two of our community entrances, Heathwood/Carriage Hill and Crystal Hills/Briar Forest. A third camera, at Kirkwood/Carriage Hill, will be installed upon road construction completion and traffic begins to flow through that entrance again. 

Some highlights of Flock:

  • 24/7 live capture cameras, solar powered running on LTE data, live streaming all photos to the cloud for immediate access. 
  • Immediate alerts to the Houston Police Department and Constable Precinct 5 if a vehicle plate or other unique vehicle identifier is captured in our cameras which is tagged as a wanted vehicle. This includes stickers, dents, racks, and even paper plates or other abnormalities on a vehicle. 
  • Database search features
    • Visual Evidence
      • Vehicle make, type, and color
      • License plate (missing plate, covered plate, state of the license plate)
      • Unique markers (bumper and window stickers, top and back racks)
    • Contextual Evidence
      • Timestamp
      • Number of times specific vehicle has been seen in 30 days
      • Associated vehicles
  • Actively monitor when suspicious vehicles or persons (sexual offenders with vehicle registered to them) are in our community.
  • Accounts with access are limited and all access logins are logged by both admins and police departments leading to complete access transparency.
  • HPD has a dedicated vehicle monitoring team which actively logs in and looks for various information related to investigating other cases as well as supporting evidence for the sex/child trafficking investigative teams. 
  • There are four other HOAs around Heathlake which are also now utilizing the same cameras. It has been a common theme to hear the cameras have yielded less traffic through their communities. 

Opportunities for our HOA:

By having these cameras we can also utilize them for several other things besides being a deterrent to crime and assisting our police organizations in investigations. 

  • Track how many total vehicles enter our community each day.
  • Quantify with accuracy how heavily utilized our streets are.
  • Work to build an instant text message notification system which would notify residents of a suspicious vehicle and/or person.
  • Can build database of resident vs nonresident vehicles and monitor with even more accuracy the rate of non resident vehicles.
  • Actively update the community on vehicle information trends and how the cameras are helping (if so) assist in various crime initiatives and investigations. 

Cost:

The cost of the cameras comes out to $7,725/year for two year contract total of $15,450. The HOA has the ability to cancel the contract at any time and will be prorated for the amount remaining on the contract. The per monthly cost per home is $2.06 over the 24 month period. 

The board believes these cameras will bring great value to our community, not only as a deterrent to criminals, but also gives us the ability to understand how heavily utilized our community is.

If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Sara Mammadova at VicePresident@Heathlake.org.