The City of Ozark is investing in more traffic cameras for their police department.
The cameras come from a company called Flock that has contracts with law enforcement agencies across the Ozarks, including in Springfield, Nixa, Branson and with the Greene County and Christian County Sheriffs.
Ozark has had three Flock cameras in operation since 2023. They want to add nine in the year ahead. Monday, the Ozark Board of Aldermen heard the details of a contract for six new cameras. These will be along MoDOT routes on Highway 65, CC and NN in Ozark. The cameras have a recurring annual fee and initial setup costs. The 60-month contract presented on Monday will cost $94,200 dollars total.
The Ozark PD will also be perusing three additional cameras for the OC and Finley River Park areas. The purchase of these cameras does not involve MoDOT and will not need Board approval. The city expects to purchase a 60-month contract for those three for a total of $46,950 dollars.
The cameras use what Flock calls “automatic license plate recognition” and vehicle identifying technology. Law enforcement can use the cameras to search for a suspect based on vehicle description or any part of a license plate number. They can look up location history and receive automatic notification when a vehicle that matches a given description passes a camera.
Being a part of the system will also allow Ozark to connect to data from other City’s Flock cameras and to request direct access to privately owned Flock cameras.
The contract will be voted on at the next Ozark Board of Alderman meeting, but the costs have already been budgeted by the city, and it will most likely move forward with the plan.
The cameras have not been without controversy elsewhere.
They caused contentions in Camden County in 2023, where the County Commission had previously banned similar cameras on county roads on the grounds of privacy, and was unhappy with Missouri Department of Public Safety cameras on state owned roads. A federal lawsuit involving Flock was filed in October 2024 by the non-profit Institute for Justice against the city of Norfolk, Virginia regarding their use of the cameras.